Tesla: Avengers Initiative
by AmberKendsLacy
Summary: It's always mere sparks that can ignite the flames of wars. And while Tess didn't know in the beginning what she was capable of creating, she could see that the future ahead all stemmed from this point. From the very first initiative. Takes place during MCU Phase 1
1. Aether

**S.H.I.E.L.D Classified recording file #2845**

 **Time of recording: 3** **rd** **November 2005, 0700 hours**

 **Location: On exit from -DELETED INFORMATION-**

…

 **ACESS APPROVED.**

 **PLAY BACK IN PROGRESS.**

 **FACIAL RECOGNITION ENGAGED.**

 **BIOLOGICAL AGE RECOGNITION ENGAGED.**

* * *

The back compartment unit of the SHEILD issued vehicle opened from the outside, and was quickly filled with several field agents, all of them moving silently amongst the rest of their ranks, lining up tightly against the walls so as to create a surrounding defensive force. Shortly after two Agents entered, the difference between them and the others being that they wore more flexible protective gear.

Neither spoke for a time, instead opting to sit on one of the few metal seats the unit could offer. Eventually the man of the pair decides to turn to his partner and attempt at small talk.

 **Male identified: Agent 'Hawkeye' Clint Francis Barton, Biological age at time of Recording: 25**

"I don't think we'll be forgetting that one anytime soon," He smiles while speaking, though his partner doesn't show much of his humor or even exuberance as Clint did at that moment. In fact if anything the red haired agent looked more like she was more locked inward, unwilling to speak to anyone still.

 **Female Identified: Agent 'Black Widow' Natasha Alinova Romanoff, Biological age at time of Recording 22…?**

"No agent fatalities, a main hide out of terrorist cell got shut down, disbanding the operation. We even managed to capture one of theirs, all in all not bad," Agent Barton leaned back in his seat, as if to further show how relaxed he was. Perhaps he was expecting his fellow agent to finally reply to him, if that were the case, he was let down as Agent Romanoff instead remained as eerily silent as ever.

Before Barton could make another attempt, he was interrupted by the entrance of two more field agents, the both of them pushing a large, man sized container up a ramp and into the back of the vehicle with the rest of its occupants. Barton's previous relaxed stance disappeared, his slouched position changed to almost straight back sitting, hands now lightly holding his bow.

Even Agent Romanoff was now even more alert than before. Her hands latched onto the pouches that kept her handguns, eyes trained on the strange container. And for the first time since entering the small containment on the back of the vehicle, the red haired Russian spoke to the partner beside her.

"Can that contain it?"

But before Agent Barton could reply there is one last entrant into the vehicle, the ramp closed and doors were triple bolt locked behind him. The entrant didn't bother to wait until the engines underneath their feet had started to even purr as they walked up to the container. The container failed to betray what was hidden inside it, it's surface being more like a mirror than a window.

In that reflective surface stared back the face of an older man, his right eye scarred and covered by an eye patch.

 **Male identified: Director Nicholas Joseph Fury, Biological age at time of Recording: 54**

"The container is made entirely of glass, rubber and hard plastic Agent Romanoff. That should be just enough to stop it from getting out and attacking us at least. But I'm not too sure about its level of outreach," The Director said as he turned back to the two Agents sitting behind him.

"Meaning there's a possibility that it can reach through all that insulation?" Romanoff replied, not letting her stance loosen, the other Agents around her also tensing even more at her words.

"Perhaps, we're not too sure at the moment, haven't had time to check. At best it's possible it'll be nothing too powerful to kill on the first attempt. Maybe not even stun if we're lucky, which is why we have to leave this place as quickly as possible. Get this to a better contained environment before it wakes up," With that the Director turned away from the container, muttering orders into a hand held device for the driver to begin their exit out of their position.

"What is in there Fury? We only saw flashes during the fight, before you managed to somehow shut it down," Barton asked, somewhat casually despite the fact that they were all still on guard to watching the container with whatever was inside of it. Fury didn't answer, the question left hanging into silence.

Nick Fury took a seat on the opposite side of the two Agents, the three of them making some kind of entertainment out of watching the container for most of the trip. Despite this level of surveillance, it was several seconds before anyone noticed the slightest of slight cracks near the bottom of the container, at least not when it first appeared. However the moment it started to grow, fraction by fraction, was when Agent Romanoff was the first to be alerted of its presence.

"We have a breach!" She stated quickly, her hand grabbing out her weapons as she was on her feet, the other Agents following her action as they too pulled out their fire arms. Director Fury and Barton stood and moved to be by the doors. Their bow and gun at the ready to make sure that whatever it was did not leave this vehicle alive.

"What is in there Fury? I need to know what I'm up against," Hawkeye asked one last time as he readied his bow, pulling the wire back as far as it would go.

"Just try not to hesitate Barton, it cannot be allowed to escape,"

Barton was too enthralled by the effects of the container after that point to further question his Director's orders.

The rubber and plastic layers of the container started to noticeably warp and shift around, the heat of whatever is inside melting it. The glass layers in response to the shifting layers caused it to crack even faster and larger than the ones that Agent Romanoff had noticed. Eventually the plastic and rubber melted down off of the container, pooling together into puddles that enveloped the steel floors.

The glass continued to crack until finally the structure gave in and shattered, the heat of it all causing some small to medium shards to fly across the room, the Agents having to hold up their arms to protect their faces. The bigger pieces of the glass fell to the floor and shattered further there, those pieces skittering around on the now plastic and rubber covered floor.

Eventually all the layers were gone, leaving only the figure that had been contained behind them, free to move around. Their limbs shifted, testing the freedom they now had, but that small shift caused all Agents to immediately point their weapons at them. All Agents, except for Barton, who despite his orders, hesitated.

"Jesus Christ…" He said under his breath, his bow lowering despite himself. His partner didn't lower her weapons, but at seeing what Barton was looking at didn't fail to affect her.

The small figure that stood where the layers of the container once were was a small female child.

Her arms that had shifted before were now holding herself tightly as she sat curled into a ball. Sweat and tears stuck her hair to her face, leaving only her eyes recognizable through the tangles mess. They stared up at the strangers around her, clearly frightened.

In any other situation it would incredible to think that this small child could in any way be considered dangerous and life threatening to the trained Agents that surrounded her.

But that image was somewhat shattered as anyone could also see the sparks of electricity that emitted off of her body.

She made a move to stand, and Fury shot her.

 **END S.H.I.E.L.D RECORDING #2845.**

* * *

Anthony Stark sniffed once as the play back of the recording that 'happened' to fall into his possession came to an end. Behind him, on several other screens, replayed videos of several other almost impossibly incredible events that were sourced from the government agency of S.H.I.E.L.D, however those scenes didn't have the same people in it. Instead, the scenes contained things such as a clearly radioactive inflicted man as he had grown in size and become green skinned, destroying an entire city block, to a weird man that resembled a Viking, holding aloft a large hammer, whilst being struck by lightning.

 _Sir, Miss Potts wishes to know if you plan on sleeping tonight._

"Almost finished JARVIS, tell Pepper I'm just finishing my homework,"

 _Of course Sir._

The genius, billionaire, playboy, philanthropist took a moment to rub his eyes, though it to him it was definitely not a sign that he was tired, if anything it was because of the glare that the light gave when bouncing off the polished steel of his many Iron Man creations that stood across the room from his desk. With this in mind, Tony typed two last commands into the computer before allowing himself to finally go upstairs and sleep for the first time in 72 hours.

* * *

…

 **CLOSE UP FOR FACIAL RECOGNITION ENGAGED.**

 **Female S.H.I.E.L.D Agent Identified: Birth name unknown. Agent name: TESLA. Biological age at time of the recording: 7**

…

 **TESLA FILES COPIED INTO AVENGER INITIATIVE DATABASE**

* * *

 **Please review, constructive criticism always welcome.**


	2. Phanes

…

 **S.H.I.E.L.D Classified recording file #3282**

 **Time of recording: 25** **th** **December 2006, 0300 hours**

 **Location: SHIELD OPS HEADQUARTERS, CHICAGO**

…

 **ACCESS APPROVED.**

 **PLAY BACK IN PROGRESS.**

 **FACIAL RECOGNITION ENGAGED.**

* * *

Several masked agents walk down a metal featureless corridor, weapons bared in front of them, ready to attack if necessary though it seems nothing is going to attack them in this place. Nevertheless they are ready and marching their way to whatever mission or order they are going to be given next. Walking somewhat slower behind them was once again an unmasked agent, this one not carrying weapons at least not any that could be seen on his grey suited person.

 **Male Identified: Agent Phil Coulson, Age at time of Recording: 42**

The agents walk through several similar corridors before eventually coming to a bulky steel door, stopping only for less than a second before it opened automatically for them. The room the agents walked into was something of a medical lab/theater, several white scrub clad figures walking and muttering orders amongst themselves in a lower level of the room, the agents looking down on them from a railed balcony, the masked agents once again lining up against the walls as Coulson walked down the steps that led to the lower level.

The medical agents didn't comment on the Agents presence, most of them too busy working dutifully on their assignment that was lying not too far away on a medical slab. This one assignment was one of apparent needed attention than most, especially since it was a person that better described at that moment as a large icicle. Agent Coulson paused a moment only to put on the same medical face mask and gloves that the medical people were, before walking over to the figure currently in a state of deep freeze.

"What is the current status of the subject?" Coulson asked to one of the medical people nearby, who took a few moments to answer as they were still assisting other in setting up the various medical equipment that were necessary to monitor the patient.

"In the process of thawing out sir, though it might take time after the defrosting for cardiac monitoring to be possible," They answered quickly before going back to their work. Coulson nodded and took a step back as various others had to move closer with multiple colorful fluid filled needles on the ready to pierce the frozen skin of their patient.

"Having happy holidays Agent Coulson?" A voice echoed from the above balcony as another entered the medical theater, the masked agents that still lined the walls of the balcony taking a moment to salute the entrant as they walked pas and down the steps to Coulson's level, the medical people saluting as well, though it was a more hurried movement as they continued with their work.

 **Male Identified: Director Nicholas Joseph Fury, Age at time of Recording: 55**

"Haven't had time for the Canteen's holiday turkey special sir, but I'm looking forward to it," Coulson answered back as the SHIELD Director stood by his second in command, the two of them doing their best to remain out of the way of the medical, while also watching over the operation to make sure nothing went wrong.

"The subject is near thawed, after the medical checkout they will need to be processed quickly and effectively to the room before consciousness is regained," The agent filled his boss in with the current information hat most likely Fury already knew, still it filled up time and gave them something to do whilst everyone was on edge, awaiting for whatever would happen once the patient became even close to a state of unconsciousness.

"Is the room ready for them?" The Director asked back whilst also placing on the apparently medical regulation of a mask and gloves.

"Well, it took a few months for the lab boys to figure out a right amount of non conductive material needed, especially since the subject was put in the deep freeze not long after being seized by SHIELD,"

"In conclusion Coulson, the room is theoretically ready. But it might be a complete success, or fall through within minutes of exposure."

"Yes sir, just in time for Christmas," The agent added at the end, smirking slightly at his own joke, though no one else did as they were too busy being serious. Director Fury just nodded in reply, any other attempt of a conversation cut off as a medical officer walked up to Fury, saluting before bothering to rely their message to him.

"Sir, the thawing process is complete and we are in the process of cardiac monitoring," They seemed a bit nervous whilst relaying this information, which they should since the word of the patient soon becoming even close to consciousness put everyone on edge, the masked agents standing above them standing even straighter than before, weapons now clutched tighter than before. Director Fury's hand even twitched slightly by the pouch that held his firearm, before he turned to Agent Coulson.

"Now would be good time for you to finally sample the turkey special Agent," Fury stated carefully whilst walking back up to the balcony above.

"No thank you sir, I was planning on assisting in the transfer to the room," Coulson stated carefully as he followed Fury up, watching now from the balcony as the medical team still were rushing about, checking various instruments and crossing their fingers in the hope that this would all work out. Various monitoring plugs were very carefully attached to the arms, chest and forehead of the patient.

For a moment there was an eerie silence as the medical team stopped in their work, pausing in apprehension to turn on the heart monitors. It took a clear order from Fury before they relented and flicked the switch that would cause the currently blank screen to create a green line.

Micro seconds passed where the green line that represented life was flat, and some of the agents in the room found themselves hoping that it would remain that way, even if it meant that all of their work so far was for nothing. However the hopes were let down as after those few micro seconds of nothingness, the green line jumped up to signs of a now continued heartbeat.

The chest of the patient now rose and fell with every beep, though their eyes remained closed.

 **Female Patient identified: Birth name unknown, Experiment name: Tesla. Age at time of recording: 8**

"Alright, let's get a quick medical check over so we can get this over with before consciousness is regained," Fury ordered as once again the medical team scurried around to quickly and effectively get the job done, all so they could get away from their patient as fast as possible.

After a medical check that found their patient in good health, the subject was then carefully moved from the medical slab and into yet another containment unit that was made of everything except a conductive component. It wasn't the same as the one used a year before, but it was obvious that the agents that had to pull it up the staircase and push it out the medical lab felt that perhaps it wouldn't be enough to hold the subject inside.

"We're in transfer, maximum precaution and security," Fury relayed through another device as he and Coulson walked behind the containment unit. The corridors ahead, that maybe had one or two unmasked agents before, were now barren as they went on.

The trip was short but apparently pulse heightening as they eventually reached the opening of the corridor that would lead to the room that Fury and Coulson were referring to. It was at this point that any metal components on the men were removed and were either exchanged for plastic replacements or had the agents left behind form this point, some of them relieved by the news as they went off to carry out other duties.

Eventually there was only Fury, Coulson and two agents left to push the containment unit through the doors and into the now plastic corridors and the room ahead. There was a tense feeling the air, something that the Director and unmasked agent tried to dwell down by their somewhat forced but welcomed anyway conversation, the topic being anything but the current situation.

"So, Stark Industries getting ready to assist in Iraq?"

The plastic bulkhead door shut behind them, cutting off the conversation.

 **END S.H.I.E.L.D RECORDING #3282**

* * *

 **S.H.I.E.L.D Classified Recording file #3283**

 **Time of recording: 25** **th** **December 2006, 0600 hours**

 **Location: S.H.I.E.L.D OPS, CHICAGO**

…

 **ACCESS APPROVED.**

 **PLAY BACK IN PROGRESS.**

* * *

The room focused in this recording was empty apart from the appearance of the subject, and the plastic comprised bed that she was currently still asleep on. The walls of the room were a light pinkish color, perhaps an effect of the plastic layers that were behind it, nevertheless it was a breakaway from the cold steel of the corridors that weren't far from, but were well protected from this room.

For some time there was nothing but the soft breathing of the child that was the only person in the room. It was an almost peaceful change of pace from the high tension atmosphere was the recording before hand, however this could be reviewed in a completely different stance if the previous recording was seen, since it meant that not far from this room, there were agents and a Director watching not far from this room, waiting for the child to awaken and to see if their plan was going to work or not.

But, exactly at 0800 hours there was a sudden static in the air.

Created mostly, because the subject was now awake, eyes snapping open to stare at strange colored walls that they didn't remember seeing before.

Despite the fact that consciousness was regained by the child, there were still unseen baited breaths to find out whether or not this was going to work out, or if they needed to place the subject under deep freeze again and think of another plan. But it wasn't long until those people got their answer since not long after the subject sat up in the plastic bed, that the electric effects that this subject was well known for, started to go off.

And though the security organization was aware that this subject was capable of creating quite a powerful electrical charge, there was still some surprise in the amount of electrical sparks and near full bolts that discharged off the girl, zapping against the walls that were a clear few feet away from her. And while they were surprised, it was apparent that only Agent Coulson noticed that she was also surprised, and very afraid.

It was apparent, since he was the first to get onto the plastic voice communication unit that was implanted into the ceiling of the room, covered by a thinner layer of plastic so it wouldn't be destroyed immediately.

 _Remain calm, everything is going to be okay._

The child looked up to the ceiling where the voice had come from, her fear still apparent, but not as high as it was before, since at least there was someone, even if she didn't know who it was. Her hands were once again wrapped around her form in a comfort as she slowly stood up from the plastic bed, electric shocks still going off all around, uncontrolled and sporadic as ever.

 _Do you understand me? Nod your head if you can,_

A slow head nod later gave the information that this child was capable to understand English at least. Coulson continued from there, gently talking her down and saying that there was nothing to worry about, that she was in a safe place and no one was going to hurt her. After this careful talk that at least had the child not hugging her arms anymore, and at one point she even managed to interrupt him, and though her voice was small and very weak, it was enough apparently to stop the Agent in his tracks and listening to her.

"Who are you?"

 _Uh… My name's Phil. What's yours?_

The child bit the side of her cheek for a moment, having to take a moment to pause and think it over before finally bothering to talk again, her head now slightly bowed and staring at her feet as she felt embarrassed and slightly afraid.

"I don't know… I don't think I have one,"

There was another moment of silence, that being no one was talking, since there was plenty of zapping noises going on from the electrical action that was still going on. For a moment it seemed like Coulson wasn't going to speak up again through the communication unit, but eventually he did, the sound of his voice returning it when she wasn't expecting it making her jump slightly, the volts jumping up slightly with her before settling down again.

 _Okay… well we could give one…_

Coulson's reply notably had the child at least somewhat perked up, listening intently for whatever the disembodied voice was going to say next. Which was a better turn out than her immediately noticing that there was no actual door that she could see visually in this room that she was in.

 _How about… umm… Lola?_

A scrunched up face of dissatisfaction apparently was enough to say that she was not happy with the sound of that name. There was possibly an unintentional chuckle through the speaker before there was another name given up for her to assess.

 _Well, what about… Tesla?_

"What's that mean?" It was sort of awkward to watch this child that was acting so much like any other normal kid, even though there was electrical bolts zapping off her skin to hit the walls and ceiling.

 _It's the name of the person who… well they… it's a very important name._

Perhaps the Agent didn't want to remind the child of the very thing that was radiating off her, which could possibly lead to questions about how that was even happening, question they didn't exactly have the answers to yet. Either way that was the answer that the Agent came out with, and apparently it was enough for the eight year old anyway, who just smiled and nodded.

"I like it, can I have that name?"

 _Sure, alright…Tess._

 **END S.H.I.E.L.D RECORDING #3283**

* * *

 **RECORDINGS SAVED INTO TESLA FILES,** **AVENGERS INITIATIVE**

* * *

 _Will that be all sir?_

"Not just yet JARVIS, I'm going to need the need the Mark VI for the ride to Stuttgart,"

 _Of course sir, your suit is ready for pick up._

"Thank you JARVIS,"

* * *

 **Please review, constructive criticism always welcome.**


	3. Auxesia

It was at ten thirty in the morning when the lights were switched on in Subject Tesla's room.

The now subject's room had seen in the SHIELD recording had definitely changed over the past four years, the light pinks of the walls remaining the same, though it was apparent that there were now hologramatic screens on behind the layers of plastic. Most of the screens were blank at this moment apart from one, which only showed an old 1940's cartoon on a continuous loop and volume down to near zero.

The plastic bed was now covered in a rather large lump of also plastic bedding and blankets; it was only when there was a rather large and barely held in snore along with some shuffling from the lump that it became obvious that the subject was still in there. When it became apparent that just turning on the lights wasn't going to wake her up, the ever present voice of Agent Phil Coulson spoke through the communication unit.

 _Tess, Tess wake up._

The cartoon on the holo screen was shut off and the lights brightened as Coulson continued to try and wake up Tesla, and while the subject's snores eventually stopped, she still didn't seem to want to admit to being awake, much less get up out of bed. There was an audible sigh from the Agent through the communication unit before he attempted again.

 _Come on Tessa, you need to wake up._

"Mrmm… Five more minutes Phil," A voice grumbled from the lump of blankets, shifting once as the snores seemed like they were going to make a comeback. However before the subject could wonder off back into dreamland, the communication unit switched on again, this time however it was not the somewhat tired voice of Agent Coulson that buzzed through.

 _Wake up and get ready, we need to talk._

Tesla nearly fell off the bed when she sat bolt right up at the sound of Director Fury's command. The usual sparks and bolts that alerted of conscious state emitting from her and bouncing off the walls and ceiling as they were known to do. Her usually terribly frizzed brown hair matted by the effects of sleep and pillow surrounding her face swiped aside as she looked up to the ceiling, where she now knew the safely concealed camera was watching her.

"Er, yes… Morning Director Fury,"

As Tesla stood up from her bed, the lump of blankets falling away, it was evident that the girl had gone through quite the growth spurt in the past four years. For a twelve year old she was definitely somewhat taller than most girls her age, though she wasn't exactly thin or gangly either. Puberty had yet to rear its ugly head, so her body shape at this time was better described as awkward. Being that she was starting to be a teenager, perhaps she would have had issues with her body shape, but since she was mostly cut off from a society that would make her think that way, she didn't.

"Date and time," The tween muttered to a certain section of the wall, which lit up again with another holo screen, showing the exact date and time, though of course it was in military time instead of normal.

 **1** **st** **March 2010, Time: 1045 hours**

The tween marched her way to a certain section in the plastic walls, which opened up to the shape of a doorway, leading into a bathroom that much like the rest of her room, was wrapped in plastic and rubber. There was running water, and oddly enough taking a shower or washing her hands didn't seem to injure her at all, despite the fact that she was practically a free cut electrical wire, sparking this way and that way all the time.

After a shower and change of clothes that were of course much like everything else that had surrounded he for the past four years, made o f plastic and other fibers that weren't easily melted or flammable, Tesla walked back to her bed, cleaning it and the rest of her room much like she knew the Director liked to see.

Director Fury wasn't the only one apart from Coulson that had contacted Tesla over the past four years, other agents would also take some time to speak to her through the communication unit, sometimes to tell stories and other times to add to the cartoon movie collection that the subject had. After all, it was keeping her entertained and not going mad in the plastic prison she had been stuck in. Most of the time the visitors didn't bother to tell her their names, hell of them all she only really knew the names of two of them, that being Clint and Natasha.

But of them all, Tesla was more comfortable with Phil, since he always brought the more antique cartoons that none of the others could find. And sometimes he would even find news reels from the 1940's as well to share with her. And the more often that he would show these films to her, the more that it was apparent that the Agent's affection of World War 2 era films had passed onto to Tesla.

Director Fury however, was not one to share stories or add a movie to the collection. Whenever he visited, it meant inspection day. And inspection day usually meant that Tesla would be rendered unconscious so that she could be medically checked up on by doctors, without shocking them with bolts of electricity, and her room searched by other SHIELD personnel for any kind of weapon she could have fashioned out of plastic fork from her dinner last night. Of course there was never any weapons found or serious illness discovered, so there wasn't much to worry about. But still it was apparent that no matter how many times this happened, Fury was still taking it as serious as ever.

And while the tween would complain and whine every time that something was moved or she wasn't sick at all, there was a bit of understanding she had that mostly came from Phil telling her that these things just needed to be done in order to keep people safe. Still, it didn't faze her annoyance about it, which was probably why the tween, now cleaned up and ready for inspection, was pouting slightly with her arms crossed, just waiting for the gas to come out of the vents that would knock her unconscious again.

 _There will be no inspection today. I'm here for a different reason._

Well, that was certainly surprising. Though for a moment Tesla couldn't help but be suspicious, looking again to the vents, just to make sure that he wasn't messing with her and there actually was an inspection going on today. After being completely sure that there was no type of gas in the room, Tesla looked back to the camera, her arms no longer crossed and her expression now one of confusion.

"What do you need me for Director?"

Instead of another verbal reply, the lights in the room dimmed and the hologramatic screen that before was showing a cartoon before, the screen now showing only a blindingly white title on a black background.

 **The Avengers Initiative**

Perhaps it was an accident, really Tesla would be the last person to know exactly why this happened, after all she was stuck in a room in which she hadn't seen another person for a long time. In any case no matter how it happened, the communication unit was turned back on and the tween got to hear the slightest of snippets of the conversation between the Agent and Director, though it was certainly quite an important snippet.

 _-Sir? She's too young for this-_

 _The World Security Council orders that she has to be ready Coulson, all we need to do is-_

The communication unit was then shut off, and kept off for a time as Tesla was left to just stand there and wait for them to get back to her, as it was apparent that the Agent and Director were a bit busy at the moment debating with each other on whether or not she should have something to do with this 'avengers initiative'.

For a time there was still nothing, Telsa beginning to whistle softly to herself while waiting, the few more sparks and bolts that went off showing her annoyance at having to wait. Eventually though whatever argument they were having was now over as the Director once again took over the communication unit and continued on with no comment to what just happened.

 _The Avengers Initiative is a plan for a task force of impossible and powerful people to do the work that SHIELD agents couldn't-_

"There are other people like me?" Telsa had never bothered to ask before if there was anyone else like her, possibly because she had just reached the conclusion on her own that she was the only one who was like this. No one else had brought up the fact that there were some people that had some kind of oddity on her level of strange, possibly so she wouldn't ask that question which would eventually lead to the question of what exactly she was, an answer they still weren't aware of.

There wasn't a verbal reply once again, the Holo screen instead showing images of a large green man crashing through walls and destroying building, and a man in a robotic suit, shooting lasers out of his hands while his feet of his iron suit apparently had rockets in them. Next to the two images are pictures of two men and their information splayed out next to them.

 **Male Identified: 'Iron Man' Anthony Edward Stark, Age: 40**

 **Male Identified: 'The Hulk' Robert Bruce Banner, Age: 41**

After them was another pair of video clips, these containing a red headed female, the SHEILD insignia on her clothes and handguns that were going off in her hands telling Tesla that she was obviously an agent of SHIELD. Next to that one was one of a strangely somewhat purple clad man, a bow in his hands, quiver on his back. And much like Tony and Bruce before them there was a quick info on the side for the both of them for her to read as well.

 **Female Identified: 'Black Widow' Agent Natasha Alinova Romanoff, Age: 27**

 **Male identified: 'Hawkeye' Agent Clint Francis Barton, Age: 30**

Telsa raised her eyebrows at the familiarity of the two's names, having heard them before when Coulson wasn't available. She wasn't exactly surprised to know that this was what the two agents looked like, but then again the tween didn't know what exactly she was expecting to see when finally meeting or at least seeing the two of them in the flesh.

There were several more clips of the two men who weren't agents of SHIELD, one where the large green man that was apparently Bruce Banner was replaced with one of the less green skin in a white lab coat, looking over several chemicals and devices on the desk in front of him. For the 'Iron Man', there was instead a press interview, with a close up on his face as he stated.

" _I am Iron Man,"_

Telsa cocked her head to the side, interested as she watched the two different men with their different but very strange powers before looking again to the two agents in action as Fury continued on, uninterrupted.

 _Stark, Banner, Barton, Romanoff and yourself will all be in the team of the Avengers initiative. The response team is for high risk, high fatality situations. The world needs protection from new kinds of heroes, and those heroes need to be in a team._

 _Do you accept the offer?_

The tween couldn't help but smile at the thought of being in a group, of being a hero. The cartoon collection she had, practically the only human connection she's had apart from the communication unit, had a lot of superhero stories. And while she was of course aware that they were only fantasies, again adding to the fact that she had felt there couldn't possibility be anything like her in the world, she couldn't help but be mesmerized by the idea.

The idea of being a real hero, and interacting with others, and not just people that weren't that different from her, but actual real, live people. Like, with skin and everything.

Well, it was easy to say that she was excited.

So excited that she didn't even remember the fact that he had stated 'high fatality', nor questioned that since she didn't really understand at the time what that meant. Her happiness was nearly completely reverberated by the bolts that struck faster yet lighter from her form.

However, while she was vamped up enough to not notice the fact that Fury had basically just stated from the very beginning that there was a high danger risk, there was another rather important factor to all this that her subconscious eventually allowed to reach her attention, and she couldn't help but question it at least.

"How can I be on this…Avengers Initiative? I can't even walk out of this room without making things explode. I mean Iron Man would certainly be someone who couldn't work with me for long; I'd probably fry him from the inside of his metal suit." It was hard not to notice that her issues were going to be a difficulty when being a part of this idea. Apparently however, this was something that had already been consulted by the people that were on the other side of the plastic walls, and they had an answer for it.

 _We actually have a way around that. Over the past four years since you were moved into the room, we have been monitoring your electrical output, and have been able to discover your highest electrical power and heat level possible. And because of that, we have managed to build a sort of… off switch._

"Off Switch?"

 _There's a prototype we want you to try out. But first we need to know if you accept this offer._

It was apparent that whatever this 'off switch' was, SHIELD wasn't going to et her use it unless she accepted the deal. And the thought of staying in this plastic cell one day when she could be elsewhere was too tempting an idea to pass up. Her answer was quick and lit with excitement at the possible future she was now going to have, being a hero.

"I accept the offer to be a part of the Avengers Initiative,"

 _Good, the prototype testing will begin in a few moments._

"But how are you going to-"

One look to the vents that were above her head answered Tesla's question for her, as the ever familiar slightly cloudy mist dropped through the steel grates, the young teen only having a moment to sigh at the ever familiar annoyance, and the fact that she was right to be suspicious of the Director before dropping down on her bed, the sensation of drowsiness by this point being nothing new as she laid back on her bed and fell asleep.

* * *

Coming too after being made unconscious by the knockout gas was never a good feeling. More often than not Tesla would feel groggy and as though she was going to throw up. Her head would feel as though it was swimming, her eyes would be blurry and unable to even make out exactly how close the walls were to her position. Though after a few moments respite and plenty of complaining, she would eventually be right as rain again.

So when Tesla woke up again and felt the usual after effects, it was pretty understandable that she wouldn't notice the sudden weight on her wrists and neck that wasn't there before. And when she did, the young teen nearly fell out her bed in surprise, after all the knockout gas sort of affected her memory a little, leaving her distressed and confused as to what her eventually straightened eyes saw in front of her.

The heavy weight on her wrists turned out to be gauntlets that began at her wrists and ended at the beginnings of her elbows, and the slight movement that the gauntlets allowed told her that there was a rubber layer on the inside that was latched around her skin. There didn't seem to be any kind of openings on the outside for her to just pull these things off her, though there was a small switch on the underarm part of the gauntlets. Though flicking that switch didn't seem to unlock them anyway, so Tesla was kind of stuck with them.

Before the young teenager could fall off the bed, she managed to stagger to her feet and walk over to one end of the room.

"Mirror," She muttered into the plastic and rubber wall, the holo screen on the other side following her one word order, showing back her reflection.

The weight on her neck was a thick choker, a steady red light on the side of the neck piece shining back at her from her reflection. Flicking the switch on the underarm of the gauntlet turned the red light to green, leaving her to guess that it had something to do with her powers.

 _Tess, we've got some exercises we want you to do, just to make sure the prototype works like we want it to. So… please stop flicking the switch, just leave it on green._

Coulson's voice that grated through the communication unit made Tesla pause in her almost constant flicking of the switch on her gauntlet, the young teen smiling innocently back to the corner of the room that she knew the camera was situated. Flicking the switch one last time so that it was back on green, Tesla walked to the centre of the room, now waiting patiently for whatever these exercises were going to be.

 _Okay, now… please raise your right arm._

Tesla did as asked.

 _Now your left arm._

Now that both her arms were in the air, Tesla couldn't help but give a confused look to the camera, wondering what exactly this had to do with anything, especially since she didn't really classify this as much of an exercise. What she didn't notice however was something rather significant, it was only when Coulson's voice crackled back over the communication unit and pointed this out to her, at which time she even began to notice.

 _Tess, look around, notice anything different?_

It was the lack of the usual crackle in the air, the tiny sparks that would radiate off her were gone, and there was definitely no completely bolts of electricity shooting off her form to hit the walls around her. There was nothing but silence, and the fact that her arms were still hanging up in the air. As Tesla let her arms dropped back to her sides, she looked back to the camera hidden in the ceiling, her excitement clear in her face.

Most of what she said after discovering this fact was created from untranslatable screaming of excitement and blubbering tears of joy. It was apparent that at some point that the agents on the other side of the plastic wall had turned off their speakers once it got to a rather unmanageable decibel and just left her to celebrate for a while. After all she was a rather sheltered twelve year old, she didn't have a lot to celebrate before this point, so they just left her to it. Coulson bothering only to speak up again a few long moments later when it seemed like her voice box was done stretching to its most breaking point.

 _Tess, Tess… Tess I know you're excited but there are still some tests that need to be done to make sure the prototype works._

Eventually Tess did manage to reach the point where she stood back into the centre of the room, a little embarrassed by her reaction already as she waited for the rest of the exercises and tests to begin.

 _Okay, now try focusing on your hand Tess, think of the electricity being only in your hand._

There was a raised eyebrow at the explanation that Coulson had given, but otherwise Tesla just shrugged it off and tried to do what he had described, thinking of the normal sparks and bolts that emitted from the rest of her, only secluded to her hand.

It took a few confusing seconds were nothing was happening, before a spark was even seen.

And as soon as that happened, there was a sudden crackling noise that came from within the gauntlets, before the light on her collar went out, and a small bit of smoke wandered out from the cracks in the gauntlets. Tesla stared in confusion at it for a moment before back up to the camera that Coulson was watching from, asking for an answer to what just happened.

… _You just over heated and blew up the processers… Back to square one then._

There was a click as the collar and gauntlets unlocked from her neck and wrists and fell on the ground, harmless and dysfunctional.

"I broke it?" Tesla felt the crackling in the air return, the sparks and bolts increasing du to her agitation at herself for breaking something that had so obviously assisted in taking this dangerous part of her away. A quick movement of sleeve wiping against face was enough to tell that she was already beginning to feel upset about it.

 _It'll be alright Tess, we'll figure out how to get it right. It's just going to take time._

"Sure Phil. I want to go to bed now, all exhausted from the excitement y'know? Night," She muttered, and whatever reply the agent had managed to transfer through the communication unit was ignored as the young teen climbed into her ball of blankets and bedding, wrapping herself up so her face was hidden from the camera lens' ever present watch. It was because the lights were then dimmed to an appropriate level for sleep, that no one really noticed the very slight shaking of Tesla's little sleeping bundle.

Or if they did, they at least didn't mention the next morning.

* * *

 **Please review, constructive criticism always welcome.**


	4. Elpis

There were a lot of prototypes from the very first one that Telsa had tried in the beginning of the year. By December, there was at least ten other prototypes that also exploded from the overload of her electrical output, at least that was how Coulson had put it whenever she asked why it still hadn't worked. And because she still didn't understand the science jargon, the young teen just nodded along in understanding and waited eagerly for the one prototype that would finally work perfectly.

Though of course that didn't make it any less obvious to the agents that had to watch her and each prototype test, that with every failure it was another mark she placed against herself. That every wrong move, was her wrong move that continuously led this investigation to a dead end. She never brought it up in conversation whenever she asked about the next experiment, instead just wanting to know how long it was going to be, until finally there was going to be a gauntlet and collar combination that wouldn't explode.

In fact it was never brought up in conversation by the other side of the plastic walls, at least not until that December, where finally for the first time since the winter season had started; there was some free time in Agent Coulson's schedule for him to visit her. Though of course the subject didn't know that he was there, until she woke up one morning to find a present for her sitting on the floor just in front of her bed.

And of course by present that meant an object that had a plastic lid over it so she couldn't see what it was.

 _Morning Tess, I left a present for you._

"Is it Christmas already?" Telsa muttered as she rubbed the sleep out of her eyes, wandering out the bed, with her blankets still wrapped around her as she sat on the floor just in front of the box, looking up to the camera for a moment to smile before looking back to the present.

 _That and it's the four year anniversary since the introduction of the room. Thought it could use a celebration. Well, that and I'm not on duty for the next few day shift hours and I could use the practice._

"Practice?" Tesla lifted the plastic lid, only to see one half of the popular board game Battleship. Though of course this one half of Battleship was made somewhat of glass and plastic so that she wouldn't destroy it.

 _It's a good strategy game, builds up your ability to read your opponent and figure out ways to play around them while keeping yourself safe._

Coulson then went on to describe the rules of the game, which turned out not too hard to understand, which of course would make it easier for this game to be one of strategy.

"But how am I supposed to read my opponent when I can't see you? That gives you an unfair advantage Phil," Tesla teased as she lightly tipped out the small grey rectangles and multicolored bits, sticking them on her choices of where the ships were going to go.

 _Still, it's fun._

"Alright, but I get the first turn," There was no argument from the other side as instead the game began. Before the game had started, Tesla had wondered why Coulson had felt that this game was going to take hours. But then again a few hours later and not even one of the ships on Coulson's side being sunk, she was beginning to understand why.

 _A4?_

"Miss, H6?"

 _Miss. So, have you been? J4._

"Hit. There was another prototype test. Apart from that, nothing much really, as per usual." Telsa sighed as she placed the red plastic piece of death into the grey bit, her annoyance understandable since the rest of the boats on her side of the game also had the red pieces in it. Though that didn't excuse her shoving the red pieces with a little more force than really necessary.

 _J7. Look Tess, I know you're upset when a prototype fails, but you can't keep blaming yourself._

"Hit. I'm not blaming myself, I just… Y'know I'm pretty sure it's not in the rules that once you manage a hit you get another turn to attack the opponent again," Tesla's attempt to avoid the conversation didn't seem to work all that well as instead of letting go to argue their variant of Battleship rules, Coulson continued to push the issue.

 _J5. Tess, tell me what's wrong._

For a moment Tesla didn't want to say anything, and instead just wanted to say another strategic point in the board game instead of whatever it was that Coulson wanted to discuss. However the teen still knew that no matter what she said next, if it wasn't the answer that the agent was looking for then he was just going to keep pushing until he got what he wanted anyway. So instead of bothering with any kind of deception or subterfuge that would be common for the people of SHIELD, Tess instead tried telling the truth, and it certainly wasn't easy.

Tesla's admittance started with something of a weary sigh and gently closing the top lid of her side of the Battleships game, looking up to the camera that was still concealed by the very plastic and hard rubber that surrounded her every day of the past four to five years.

"I'm Thirteen now, and I've haven't been outside in nearly six years. The last time I even remember being outside of this room, I was seven and I'm not even really sure what happened that day. But ever since then, it's just been me in here. I haven't had actual visual or physical contact with another human being. Y'know I… I've met a lot of agents. Ward, Garret, Romanoff, Barton. And I only just got to know what the last two even look like, and that was probably just a coincidence. I mean, you're the one person I've known the most, and I've never really met you,"

She was a little emotional when she had finished, but thankfully not enough for her to feel embarrassed. Though there was some sniffles and a weak sleeve wipe across her eyes.

 _And you're worried that if these prototypes keep failing, you'll never be able to leave._

"I just want to be free, and I feel like it's just taking too long, and eventually Fury will just move on and find someone else to fill my spot. And I'll be stuck here for good," It was a very frightening feeling of pressure that the teenager had been inflicted with, with every failure of a prototype she felt the eyes of the 'World Council' and Director Fury turning away from her, leaving her in the dust and choosing someone else that was easier to control into the Avengers Initiative.

And there was nothing that Tesla wanted more than to be a part of the Avengers Initiative, in fact there was nothing more she wanted in her whole life than this. And with every failure, she felt like she wasn't doing enough to get it. That to opinion of the other invisible agents of SHIELD on the other side of the plastic walls, that she possibly didn't want it enough to have a prototype finally work.

 _That's not going to happen Tessa. When you accept the invitation to the Avengers Initiative, it's sealed and solidified. They won't turn away from you now, there's been too much work already fro that to even happen. As far as Fury and I are concerned, you're already an Avenger._

There was some embarrassing emotions after that, followed up by a lot of sleeve wiping and awkward sniffles. And when the level had lowered again Tesla managed a weak smile and a chuckle when once again opening her side of the Battleship game again, looking over the small grey pieces surrounded by blue, looking back up to the hidden camera in the ceiling.

"You sunk my battleship,"

* * *

 **February 14** **th** **2011, 0600 hours.**

The holo screen glow that projected the current time and date shined back on the rather cranky faced teenager. The scientist division of SHIELD apparently always liked to do their experiments tests in the early morning. Which was totally fine, of course only if their test subjects were morning people, which this certain gifted subject definitely was not.

 _Subject TESLA prototype test no. 7/1. Current date February 14_ _th_ _2011, time: 0600 hours. Senior Testing supervisor for this scenario is Agent Dr. Edward Cobert and this test's Assistants are Agents Simmons and Fitz. Does the subject have any statements they would like to make before testing begins?_

"Can I have a lollipop when it's over?"

 _Statement is noted, testing will begin, standby for knockout gas._

Once again the vents flowed out a translucent gas instead of the usual oxygen, and the teenager eventually staggered over to her bed before passing out. After the usual pain and nauseating headaches that came from waking up after the effects of the knockout gas, Tesla took the time to look down at the new prototype to be latched on to her wrists and around her neck.

These were notably of a new design than that of the original, which was not unusual but these ones were noticeably sleeker in style and less bulky than the others, which would make it easier to hide from view than the others.

The switch that would turn off and on her 'conductivity' as one of the many doctors before this one had described it to her, was still in the same place as it had always been, though it was smaller and looked more like a thumb swipe. Tesla remembered one of the many doctors chatting, whilst the communication device was accidentally left on for too long, on whether or not they could also try a 'genetic scanner switch' in the 'blueprints' of the devices.

Tesla had asked Coulson not long after that what that could mean, and was filled in that a genetic switch would stop someone other than her turning the conductivity on or off without her permission. Basically it would be her own thumbprint that would even have the gauntlet and neck brace working. The teenager made a hum of approval, clearly impressed somewhat that they had managed to include this feature on such a sleek design.

And yet, she could already feel the swirling pit of fear and anxiety that this prototype was also going to fail, or that it would be the last one t fail. Sure, Coulson had provided quite the comfort in telling her that Fury wasn't going to abandon her, and keep working at this until it finally reached a success, but there was still that fear nonetheless. As irrational as it was, there was nothing that could beat down that fear, other than a miracle success of course.

The teenager turned on the holo screen that would be her reflection, looking at the device that was currently clutched rather snuggly around her neck. It was also sleeker and less heavy than the others; it was also shaped more like a smaller triangular choker. There was no small red or green blinking light like before, and instead there was a singular bead in the center of the now necklace like neck device, the bead was now a blood red, and when the device was activated so she could use her ability through her hands, the bead would turn green.

The devices certainly looked overly nice for this test, and it was because of that that Tesla couldn't help but wonder if they were completely banking on this test being the one that would finally succeed. Certainly the teenager wanted that o be the case, just like with every other prototype before, but it felt kind of foolhardy for them to throw all their eggs in this basket already.

It was their technology and her hopes that were on the line here, and while one was more expensive than the other, they could both be torn down to quite the low level with another failure. And whether or not the agents were expecting this one to definitely work, Tesla couldn't help but feel her own expectations rising with the sudden upgrade that the devices had received, while also hoping that this was not going to be another case of her being proved completely wrong.

 _Let the testing begin._

Tesla gently moved her thumb across the print scan, looking back into the neck device to see that the red bead had turned green, the device was now on. The teenager took a moment to be silent, feeling the sudden absence of the crackle of electricity in the air. It was always that sudden lack of the familiar current that bounced off her form, that would raise Tesla's even lowest hopes, since no matter what so far every prototype that had been tried out, had enough power to stop that current from releasing out and attacking others.

But could the device allow her to control the current that flowed through her? Or would it explode just like all the others. Tesla wanted to find out right away, but still the teenager knew that she would have to wait until the professional on the other side of the plastic walls told her when to do it. They were the one that had designed this device after all; they certainly knew what they were doing.

 _Place your right hand forward, palm up._

Tesla did so, while also doing her best to make sure they couldn't see her hand shaking. Her breath was caught in the back of her throat as her eyes shut out the sight, stuck by the anxiety she had that this was going to be yet another failure.

 _Focus your energy._

Her heartbeat was pounding in her ears as the young teen waited for the familiar yet hollow feeling sound of fizzing failed circuits and the stench of burnt metal and plastics.

…

The silence was dense and unapologetic-ally unknown to her. What was going on, on the other side of her eyelids was at that moment just as unknown to her as whatever was on the other side of the walls that had kept her in this room all this time. For a long time Tesla wanted to keep her eyes shut, to just block out the possible failure that was waiting for her. She just couldn't take another failure, not another wasted opportunity.

But still, the human itch of curiosity begged her to open her eyes, see what had had happened. But before the young teenager allowed the curiosity to win out, she prayed for as far as she knew was the first time in her life, to let this be the successful one. Let this be the time that changes everything.

"Please," It was so soft, hidden in the corners of her gentle voice box that it was entirely possible that no one, not even Tesla really heard her one worded prayer. Nevertheless, not more than a millisecond later the eyes that were too afraid at one point to look, allowed the light back in.

The smallest of poignant features were for some reason the first things that Tesla allowed to think of. The usual metal tang that was in the air because of her electric current was lowered significantly to more of an aftertaste. Even the hairs on her arms that were usually standing up straight were now flat, the hair on her head even felt as though it had less volume in it than before. But despite all of that, there was a more important visual than the senses of her taste and nerve endings.

And that was mostly because not only was the gauntlet still attached and functioning on her arm, but also her hands were the only part of her body that emitted her usual small sparks.

 _Experiment is noted as a success. Subject will ready themselves for disabling._

Not even the low tones of the scientist on the other side could lower the young teenager's happiness, but still she did her best to maintain that, no need for the there to be a sudden overload because of this and everything to go right back to nothing. So she took a deep breath, but didn't allow the grin to be wiped from her face.

 _Testing is over. Prototype will be reissued as final product after some additions._

Now that did manage to lower her grin to more one of a smile of lopsidedness.

"But, I thought that when testing was over I could leave the room? What additions would you need to add now, it works doesn't it?" Her question was never answered however, as instead the young teenager smelt the usual scent of the knockout gas that filled the room.

* * *

 **February 21** **st** **2011 1500 hours.**

Those seven days of waiting, sitting around and having no answers no matter how many questions she asked. They were worse than the past year of tests and failures, since at least then there was a chance of nothing to look forward to. Now that there was a chance of being free, the wait seemed even more excruciating than ever, what with the finish line being so close and yet so far away at the same time.

Coulson had yet to come back since last Christmas, which wasn't unusual but at the same time usually there would be one of the agents that visited her in the mean time that would tell her how he was doing or at least is he was alive or not. But ever since the testing had been completed, no one had spoken a word, which again was not incredibly unusual, but at the same time it was certainly not helpful to her at that point in time.

So after a week of having to feel as though she had been shoved to the side and forgotten, the teenager's patience for her freedom had certainly worn completely thin. After spending most of her days watching any of the movies she had available on the holo screens, however by the last two days she had found it more eventful for some reason, to stare down the certain corner of the room that she knew had the camera in it.

When the waiting period was actually over and the final product was ready for her, Tesla was pretty sure that she was the last one to know about it. The young teenager was pretty damn sure of this being a fact since the period of the past week of having no contact whatsoever was ended by a voice over the communication unit.

 _Final Product is now ready for use; Subject will ready themselves for disablement for the device._

When waking again, Tesla wasn't surprised that the gauntlets and necklace like devices were back on her, but she was certainly surprised for a whole other reason. The young teenager sat up from her bed, looking to the center of the room where her surprise was certainly centered.

"Afternoon Tessa, ready to go?"

* * *

 **Please review, constructive criticism always welcome.**


	5. Tyche

"Afternoon Tessa, ready to go?"

Tesla sat up in her bed, eyes growing wider with every passing second as her mind assessed exactly who was standing in front of her. It took a moment to even figure out that for the first time in quite a few years, there was another living human being standing right in the same room as her, and that enough was going to cause the young teen to break out into tears of complete joy.

But, at the exact moment when her mind attached the ever familiar voice with the face that was before her, she did feel the moister prick at the corners of her eyes.

"Coulson?" The teen only managed to squeak the one word out before her hand covered her mouth to try and muffle the rather embarrassing sob. A sob that was a creation of excitement, joy and overall delight at the thought of finally meeting the man she had known for the past few years of her stay in this room. She got to her feet, the sheets for a moment tangling in amongst her legs before she finally managed to kick them away and take a step closer to Coulson, who had been watching her whole reaction with an expression of patience and happiness.

"I know I'm probably not what you'd think. Could afford to have more hair, maybe be a bit taller," He was being sarcastic, possibly trying to relax her in case she was stressed at the thought of him being here, trying to ease away the idea that she could still hurt him. But that was at the back end of her mind at this moment.

"No, you're exactly what I hoped you'd be. You're perfect," Tesla meant every word as she took a step closer, a thumb wiping away a fledging tear that managed to escape her eye. Coulson broke into a full smile after what she had said, one that the girl returned back to him. And even still her mind was racing, wondering if he even was there, if she was allowed to reach out and touch him, just to see, just to find out if he was really there.

"Can I…" Tesla trailed off, the agent already knowing exactly what she was talking about, which caused his smile to go a little more lopsided than before as his eyes gave off a look of more sympathy than happiness.

"I'm sorry Tessa, but you can only make visual contact right now, there's still a quite the road to travel down before we can reach that point," For a moment perhaps the agent felt that this would be the breaking point for the teen, the realization that there was still so much that she had to go through before she could even shake his hand. However what Coulson received instead was a slight shrug of the shoulders and a smile.

"That's okay. Cause this, this is enough for now. Thank you," Telsa wiped what moisture was pricking at the corner of her eyes, trying to ignore how much she wanted to tackle the only human being she had seen in a long while in front of her. Instead she clutched her hands together, squeezing them together in order to keep her control.

"Well, how about we move this party to the next room?" The Agent didn't wait for Tesla's reply as he instead walked over to one side of the plastic room, his hand touching against a random section of the wall, fingertips tapping at random points. And then suddenly in that exact place, was a glowing number pad. Tesla was certainly surprised to see this addition to this room, being that she had been in here for years, looking over every centimeter of wall so that it was intimately the most well known cell she would ever be in. So it was surprising that she had managed to somehow miss this.

After another tapping of numbers on this occasion, the section of the plastic wall suddenly pushed inward and slid to the side, florescent lights blaring out in its place. Tesla shielded her eyes from the brightness of it, and watched for a moment as Agent Coulson easily placed on his sunglasses and stepped out of sight and into the intense light.

For a moment, Tesla paused, looking back to the room that was the only thing she had ever known for the past six years. The subject felt as though she was a young chick, moving to leave the warmth of the nest and fly independently, but was being held back by the fear of falling.

"Are you coming?"

Still, a quick fall is better than the suffocation of the familiar.

Tesla turned away from the plastic cell that had been her familiar, promising herself in that one moment that she would never return, never again. Her foot eased into the light first, disappearing into the bright beams. With a little more confidence, her other foot followed and she was swallowed up into the new world as the door slid shut behind her.

The natural light of the plastic room shut off not long after, the computer recognizing the sudden lack of life in the surroundings.

"Agent Tesla, welcome to SHIELD,"

The bright light shut off to reveal a large multi steel platformed room, several agents standing up from their computer stations to, for the first time, look down on their subject with their own eyes at the moment of her entry. Tesla looked around individually at every agent, the realization of exactly how big her existence and testing had been becoming more and more apparent. And, at the very top of these platforms, stood the man whose voice she recognized second best.

"Director Fury," It was both a moment of recognition, and a check just to make sure. The man on the highest platform smiled and nodded, his hands not moving from the bar it was clutching in front of him. The eye patch that covered his eye was the first thing the subject tried not to look as both she and Coulson moved up the platforms to his position. The scientists and technicians that passed on the way whispered amongst each other as she passed them by, again something she tried not to look at and just ignored.

"Nice to finally see you suited up, but are you ready to fight?" The Director turned and walked out of the room, the agent and subject trailing after him, though of course Tesla was the slower of the two since she was too busy looking around at every single metal art of the wall or computer set that she ahd never seen before. Which did take a little while, since everything was new and needed to be looked over and studied in he opinion. However, she seemed to take a little longer to answer Fury's question than she was supposed to in the meantime.

"Agent, I asked you a question," The subject snapped to attention again at the sudden drop in the Director's tone, knowing already that it was never really a good thing.

"Yes sir, sorry sir. Um… I think I will need some training before I jump into the action sir," She stuttered a moment, nervous as all hell for the simple fact that she felt as though any wrong word, would send her spiraling back to the very place she never wanted to see again.

"Logical answer, very good," The Director continued to lead Coulson and Tesla down several metal corridors, other agents passing them without a second thought. After a few more corridors and Tesla's fascination only growing ever higher, Fury eventually stopped at a metal bulk door and after a few button pushes later, the bulk head opened.

The steel room was larger than any she had ever seen, and it was filled from wall to wall with exercise machinery and tools. Well, apart from one section in the middle of the room, where a large light grey mat of plastic had been laid on the ground, most likely where hand to hand combat would be trained out on. And on this mat at that very moment of their entry, two agents were rather busy, strenuously fighting, moving in ways around each other that Tesla didn't even realize before was possible.

"You'll be training here until I and the world council see you fit for any ground or casual clothing missions. And you'll be trained by two of SHIELD's brightest and best of Agents," At the sound of the Director's voice, the two agents paused in their training and looked in Fury's direction, their features already recognizable to Tesla. After all, she'd seen them on TV.

"Agent Clint 'Hawkeye' Barton and Agent Natasha 'Black Widow' Romanoff. Meet our new recruit and your new trainee, Agent Tesla," It had taken Tesla until this moment to realize that the Director had started referring to her as an Agent, and still the young teenager couldn't decide whether or not that was a good thing. After all, she couldn't but feel as though she wasn't as qualified as the two agents in front of her to be called by such a title.

"Um sir… shouldn't I go through some kind of test or even more training before I can be an Agent, or even a level one clearance?" Certainly her voice lowered quite the significant amount when she felt all the eyes of the room on her, as she was already regretting her decision to speak up. Coulson thankfully saved her from the agonizing silence as he answered her question in the place of the Director, who apparently didn't seem to find her answer worthy of answering himself.

"You're a special case Tesla. You have level five access, because you are the level five intel," Phil gave her a comforting smile as she nodded in understanding and looked back to the two agents on the mat that were apparently now her trainers. Barton was the first to move, obviously that he was either the kinder of the two, or he was the more willing to train her than Romanoff.

"Nice to see you out and about," Barton's tone reminded Tesla of the time she had first heard him, telling her a story about Budapest, or at least his version of what happened. The agent looked as though he were about to go and shake her hand, but then thought the better of it and let the hand dangle back to his side. Tesla tried not to show that she had noticed, and didn't succeed.

"Nice to stretch my legs for the first time," Tesla replied back, looking to Romanoff for a moment as it was hard not to notice that the agent was studying her silently during this time, looking over her trainees stature and the way she held herself. Frankly it was uncomfortable as all hell, but she wouldn't expect anything different from the clinical thinker that was Romanoff.

Hell, even when the young teen had first met the agent, there wasn't much said apart from a greeting, establishing their names and what movie Coulson had managed to get for her that night before falling back into silence. There was no connection there with this agent like the one Tesla had with Coulson or even Barton. Not that she was expecting every single person she met to open up and like her, but it didn't make it any less weird that Romanoff was staring at her like she was some freakish kind of visual effect painting you needed to stare at for more than a moment in order to find the meaning behind it.

There was a sudden feeling of being affronted, after all she was not as simple as old fashioned glass, so there was no way she was going to let this little staring act bother her. And so without really meaning it, the young teen found that she was glaring back at the Black Widow. As soon as the teen noticed this fact however, she quickly looked away, and prayed that the frightening Russian spy didn't see it in the first place.

"I'll leave you in the capable hands of your new trainers. Agent Coulson, we have some things we need to discuss," And with that, the Director turned and left the training room with Coulson, after another comforting smile and nod to the two agents, in tow. Tesla watched him leave before turning back to her trainers, her foot awkwardly scratching at the calf of her leg as she waited for them to say something, before eventually she decided to be the one to kick it off.

"Where do we start?"

* * *

The training wasn't completely grueling, after all it made no sense to completely exhaust an agent, especially if an emergency were going to instantly happen near their facility. And yet at the end of every session Tesla found that she would be exhausted, more so than she had ever been in her entire life.

Yet it was never anything the teen decided was too important for her trainers to hear, especially if it was really just her getting used to being outside her little room. So she kept it to herself and tried to continue on with the training as though nothing was wrong, though that issue still remained at the back of her mind, a tid bit of an issue that for one reason or another, she just couldn't get rid of.

The issue only ever really came more notable and serious during one of her sessions of aim training with Barton.

That day the teen woke refreshed and ready, much like she did every other day and walked down to the training area where only one of her trainers was waiting for her. It wasn't unusual that there would be one reason or another that one of her trainers couldn't make it, and of course the teen would be told why, but only on her level of allowed access of course.

"Romanoff's a little tied up in Peru right now, so I'm going to take over her lesson of long range."

Tesla nodded and moved towards the armory section of the training room. There was a large selection to choose from, though Tesla's favorite had always been her starting weapon, a small handgun that while it didn't hold a lot of ammunition, it thankfully didn't have too much of a forceful push back after firing. The small shine of the gun's handle was the first indicator that the teen went for, and was about to reach for it, when she was interrupted by her trainer for the day.

"We're not going to be using firearms today. Instead, Director Fury wanted you to being learning how to use your ability,"

Of course this day would be coming, the use of her abilities was the only reason she was ever put I her situation, that she was made an Avenger. Still, there was that tiny creeping feeling of fear, the kind someone would get when performing in front of a class, except she was more afraid that she would make Barton's heart explode. One mistake could ruin everything and she needed to be so, so careful.

Tesla walked carefully back to the centre of the training room and waited for Barton's instructions, trying to control her breathing and remain still, just to hide just how filled with anxiety she was on the inside. However it seemed as though she hadn't done that great of a job.

"You haven't received your deception training yet right? I can see how panicky you are. Don't be, I'll be up there for the rest of this session," Barton pointed up to metal handrails that were far above their heads. Tesla nodded in understanding, remembering that it was Barton's preferred position of attack and defense, to be the eye in the sky. At least that was what was stated in his file.

Barton walked to a ladder and began climbing, but not before signaling to the teenager to wait until he was at the very top of the metal handrails. Tesla nodded clearly for the agent to see and walked to the side of the training room that held the paper targets, and even some new additions of plastic heads with targets drawn on them.

"Is SHIELD expecting a new shipment of ammunition targets? Cuz these are not going to last the rest of the day," Tesla commented, her voice having to be louder so Barton could hear her while he was climbing to his perch.

"There's always a steady supply of targets and ammunition, just in case an agent like Romanoff needs to let off some steam. So go nuts," Barton replied back as he finally seemed to settle into position. Tesla looked up to where he was just to make double sure that he was absolutely out of the way of where she was planning on aiming.

"Whenever you're ready Tesla, just go for it,"

As soon as the gauntlet light turned green, Tesla started to once again feel what was once a near constant tingling feeling in the tips of her fingers and toes. It was both a familiar comforting feeling as well as a reminder of what damage she could do. Her fists clenched as the sparks started to emit, at first not visible to the human eye, but eventually growing.

It had been a few weeks since she was last able to emit the electricity, and the added exhausted feeling wasn't helping in her efforts. But eventually she could feel the current going under her skin, the electricity just waiting to be let out.

One of the plastic mannequin heads with the targets drawn on them caught the teenager's attention, and she carefully stretched her arm out, the electricity now gathering to full bolts around her fist, but not striking out.

Tesla let her fingers stretching out, and was nearly blown back by the effect.

However it wasn't the force of the electricity strike emitting from her hand that moved her, more her own shock at the actual feel of it. The mannequin head exploded not seconds after impact, the plastic shards flying across the room.

"Nice shot," Barton's encouragement echoed through the silence and crackling of the electricity in Tesla's hands. The teenager smiled and thought about giving thumbs up to show she was alright, before thinking the best of it and instead walking to the next plastic head to do it again and go on from there.

Eventually she started getting comfortable with the feel of the strikes, and started to experiment with different hand movements gestures.

Tesla pointed her hand out to represent a gun, electricity now crackling around her wrist before shooting out of the one finger that was pointed towards one of the many mannequin heads. The teenager watched, fascinated as the bolt was smaller than the use of full hand. The head didn't explode in this case, instead it was forcefully blasted off its ledge and blackened considerably by the volts.

"Are you beginning to enjoy this?"Barton's voice echoed from his position for the first time in quite a while. Tesla made a sound of agreement as she looked back at the twenty or so destroyed or damaged mannequin heads she had used so far for this session.

"Clean up time rookie, time to switch off," The order was, for the first time since training had actually begun, a disappointment. Still, the teen was also totally up for hitting the showers after such an extensive use of her ability. Her heart was beating so heavily she could hear it in her ears and it was fairly obvious that she was very sweaty.

Her hands were trembling a slight bit, most likely from exhaustion or the effect of her erratic heartbeat, as she flicked the switch that would lower her conductivity till she was safe enough for Barton to approach. However, it was as that small metal lever was flicked and she felt the electrical power being drained from her system that she directly began to feel… weaker.

"Tesla?"

Her body seemed suddenly too heavy for her legs to hold up, and it wasn't long before the teen found herself stumbling slightly forward and then to her knees. She could hear the archer approaching, slowly as he was still unaware on whether or not it was safe. She wanted to say something, but her tongue felt like rubber and her teeth were aching. Her arms felt like they were made of lead, her shoulders drooping in an attempt to compensate.

"Agent Tesla, I order you to answer."

Her eyes started staying closed for long periods of time, and when she next opened them up, she found that her ability to stand up had left her, and she had met the floor.

"Tesla!"

Barton was standing over her now, she could see his Shield issued boots in front of her face.

"Director Fury I need an ability specific medical team for Agent Tesla, she's fallen to the ground, isn't answering verbal commands and seems incapable of movement. I am unable to tell her current heart or breathing status due to her condition," He sounded hurried, but still retained that sense of poise and calm that came with SHIELD Agents, the issue was out of hand but that didn't mean he couldn't contain it until help arrived.

The rest of whatever Barton said through his communicator became steadily lost to Tesla as black spot made their way into her vision. She tried to say something, something to warn the agent that she was losing consciousness, but couldn't manage more than a half hearted sounding groan.

Blackness took over as her as she saw more feet approaching, but that seemed to be in the back of her mind as one last mortifying thought past through her conscious mind.

Fury knew, and if he knew, then there was a chance that it was all over.

She could never be allowed to be an Avenger.

* * *

 **Please review, constructive criticism always w** **elcome.**


	6. Bia

The first emotion that seared its way across Tesla's brain when she came to was nothing short of complete mortification and fear.

Her last memory was Agent Barton informing Director Fury of the incident, and that alone was enough to make her heart just decide to give up on pumping blood altogether. But the fact that the main man of SHIELD knew that she was in some way not ready for the field, could only mean that she was going to be redacted from the Avengers Initiative.

Naturally Tesla's hands went to cover her face in embarrassment and anxiety, only for the teen to find that they would b rather unable to move. And that was mostly because she was in something of a tube with restricted space. It took her mind a few seconds to catch up and remember what this was, before she sighed in annoyance at the thought of it.

What Tesla was in, was a Hyperbaric Chamber. It was created mostly to keep an object or person in a stable depressurized condition whilst scanning them or when on route to a surgery, but was also an effective little cylinder prison, at least that was how the teen felt about it.

She had been in this chamber before, having needed to be scanned every once and a while for overall body conductivity. And all it really did for Tesla was remind her that she was very dangerous, and presented a new apprehension of cramped spaces in her.

"Hello?" Her voice was muffled by the effects of metal, glass and technology, but Tesla was sure that her impatience was showing through, since it wasn't a few seconds later that a scientist appeared in her view.

"Agent Tesla, My name is Professor Helen Cho. Please try to relax, the scans on your body have finished but you do need to remain calm, your collapse seems to have taken a lot out of you physically," The medical professional's tone was comforting and light, which was enough by itself to cause the teen to relax. However Tesla was still a little curious as to what her situation was.

"Have you found what caused me to collapse?"

"The scans have shown the electric current that surrounds your body was overused to a certain point that it began to take energy from elsewhere. The scans don't show where the replacement energy is coming from, but we've theorized that it possibly could be from the energy provided by your ATP,"

The frown lines on the teenager's face were enough to tell the professor that she needed to elaborate.

"Adenosine triphosphate or ATP molecules contain chemical bonds that store energy in the human body. When the bonds are broken, energy is released and is used to power your body. Think of ATP as… The battery that gets charged in your body, and once it is charged, it sets off sparks of energy that can be used throughout the body,"

The quick science lesson was welcomed as Tesla nodded along with what the professor was saying, linking together what the scientist's theory was.

"So you think my body is using my ATP to create replacement electricity and that exhausts me to the point of collapse?"

"It's around those grounds, yes,"

"Is there anything I can do? I mean, how do I get the uh… ATP…back?"

"Well, the ATP molecule is created from the food that we consume, so the best we can do is create a food source for you that will store up our ATP to a level that is necessary for your electric current and your body. Of course, we're still not entirely sure if that is the case. So first we're going to have to take your through trials of different sustenance diets. Such as extra protein, fibers, carbohydrates, etc."

Oh joy, another block in the road.

Tesla was not that aware of curse words at this time, but had she been more eloquent in the art of expletives, there would have been one or two that would slip out as a result of her situation. Of course, just as she was sure that the road ahead was finally clearing, that she would finally and truly become an Avenger, the world throws a curve ball that keeps her behind.

The Professor noticed that the teen was no longer willing to trade words, and so left her to her thoughts. Though that wasn't much of a time passing entertainment, since Tesla's thoughts were now based mostly on the repeating of the word why and being mostly miserable about her current situation. Eventually there came another distraction as Agent Barton stepped into her available peripheral vision.

"Hey trainee, gave me a bit of a scare there, feeling better?" The Agent leaned against the glass section of the chamber as he spoke.

"As good as I'll ever be. Did the Professor tell you? I'm apparently sucking the life energy out of myself just to light up. I need to go on a diet," Her quick summary of what seemed to be the situation so far was used by her to try and somehow lighten her outlook on it. Certainly Agent Barton didn't seem that overly bothered by it, instead shrugging his shoulders and making something of a light reply.

"Looks like our long range training will be stuck with guns and knives for a while then,"

Well, at least it still seemed that training was going ahead, at least in Barton's opinion. This was enough to relax Tesla with the thought that she wasn't going to be completely abandoned.

"Yeah…"

"Your deception training really needs to start soon,"

"It's just… my electric current wasn't as much of an issue before I left the room. And I never felt this exhausted when until after I left, ATP leeching or not."

Barton shrugged before replying, his next offering of an explanation being one that she had thought over before.

"Perhaps you're just over whelmed mentally as well, like you said you only just recently left the plastic room. And you were in there since you were eight years old,"

"I had thought it was just that for a while, but I can't help but think now that there might be more to it…" Tesla trailed off, the newbie agent expecting her trainer to insert something to make her keep her hopes up or quell her fears. Instead there was nothing but an awkward silence. The teenager looked back to Agent Barton, waiting for him to say something, only to notice that he was now facing away from her.

The young agent felt like saying something here, asking if there was something he knew about this, if there was something vital that her trainer wasn't telling her. However Tesla stopped herself, shaking off the thought that he would do that. What would be the point of keeping secrets from secret agents? It would just make things even more complicated.

She trusted SHIELD, so why wouldn't they trust her?

"Agent Tesla," Professor Cho came back into the teenager's limited view and interrupted the strange silence between the Agent and his trainee, "Director Fury has ordered that you're to take rest back in your quarters. Apparently there's a video call waiting for you?"

Tesla nearly sat up straight with a great deal of enthusiasm as she remembered what was supposed to be special about today. The soft thud of her forehead hitting glass however, reminded her that that wasn't going to be entirely possible. The stinging pain in her head as she laid back down still didn't dull her renewed excitement however as she was still smiling cheerfully.

Agent Coulson had left some time ago on a mission, the details of which Tesla wasn't completely aware of since he left before he could tell her. He had promised in a voice mail however, to call her on what he called a 'video chat' when he had a free moment. It had kept her spirits up in the last few exhausting weeks, thinking that tomorrow could be the day that he would call her up and tell her all about it.

"I'm ready to leave any moment Professor," The teenager replied as the medical professional pressed the appropriate keys on the number pad that allowed the glass of the Hyperbaric Chamber to pull away, allowing Tesla to maneuver herself out of the medical equipment.

However as the teen went to pull herself up by the strength of her arms, she could feel the muscles in her arms shaking just a little bit, yet just enough to for her to notice. Tesla pushed herself harder, and managed to get on her own feet by herself, however standing straight took a little moment of wobbling and gripping a metal table to manage.

"Just some pins and needles I guess," She smiled it off, but all three people in the room knew well enough that it wasn't even close to the reason why. Professor Cho looked for a moment as though there was something she wanted to say, before turning and walking towards a medical table, looking over and eventually choosing out something. It was only when she walked back that the teen could see that she was holding a small pill bottle.

"We'll start with basic vitamin trials, over the counter simple pills before we look into more body samples and see where we can really start the trials. In the meantime, make sure you get enough rest and eat your appropriate food requirements," It was apparent that the Professor wanted this medical trial to begin. Perhaps to just get her job done, but the sight of what should have been a perfectly healthy teenager wobbling all over the place and having extreme difficulty even lifting herself up.

"Of course Professor, thank you," Tesla took the pill bottle gratefully with a slightly shaking hand.

It wasn't long afterwards that Tesla left the medical room, completely aware of the pitying and worried eyes of the Doctors, her trainer and Professor watching her. But she didn't care, instead attempting to do her best to walk with her head held high and look as perfectly healthy as she wanted to feel.

After all, she didn't want to appear weak in front of her superior officer when he called.

* * *

The moment that the teenager had managed to get herself into her new metal room, away from the prying eyes of other Agents, Tesla knew that she could drop her act of feeling perfectly normal, and collapsed onto her bunk in exhaustion and relief. The bunk was typical SHIELD issue, perhaps the normal civilian would have found it as stiff as a wooden board and completely uncomfortable, but to the exhausted teen, it was like lying on a marshmallow.

She wanted to sink through and into the floor, to never have to get up again. Her limbs felt as though they were made of the heaviest metal, impossible to even think about lifting, yet the teen knew that any moment she would have to get back on her feet.

After all, she felt that if Tony Stark could manage to plug a tiny generator into his chest, then she could stand up for her S.O when he finally called.

Just as this thought managed to keep her motivation up to level, the previously shut off holo screen that was just across from her bunk suddenly lit up with the SHIELD insignia and a flashing code that said exactly how important this call was.

"Answer," Tesla said as she quickly shot up, her brain aching slightly as the sudden movement and her limbs protesting. But she ignored it as she did her best to stand up before the SHIELD symbol would be replaced with her caller.

Agent Coulson's face filled the screen not moments later, though for a few moments it seems as though he couldn't tell whether or not it was actually on.

"Uh Phil? Um, I can see you. Is there something wrong?" The teenager said, having to raise her voice the slightest bit just in case his audio receivers were damaged or not. Agent Coulson noticed her voice, so at least there was that, but the furrowed brow of the S.O said well enough that he mustn't have been able to see her.

Tesla admitted to herself that she was somewhat relieved to know that he couldn't see her. No doubt the exhaustion she was feeling reflected in her appearance, and she didn't want to worry him when he was obviously very busy with his own work.

"Hi Tessa. I can't seem to get any visual through. It's this new video mainframe the techs have set up for covert security. I'm still trying to get the hang of it," The older agent looked annoyed for a few moments before he finally seemed to give up on that working and stepped back. The teen let herself sit down on her bunk, her legs thankful for the rest. Since it was apparent that the agent wasn't going to be able to see her, then she at least would allow herself to sit.

The layers and snow suit on the older agent said that wherever Coulson was, it was somewhere with a very low temperature and regular snow. It was also possibly a violent windy environment, considering the earmuffs and goggles that were now hanging around his neck. His hair was also smoothed down only by hand, making it apparent to Tesla that he had only just managed to pause in whatever it was he was doing to make this call.

"Hope I'm not taking up too much of your time, you seem really busy,"

"Not busy at all, we managed to make some major advancement today, so the team took an early break. How have you been? I asked Fury to give me updates whenever he could, but he hasn't sent anything yet,"

"Oh I'm fine; Agent Barton's been keeping me busy in training. But c'mon, tell me what you've been doing?" While it was apparent that Fury didn't want to tell Coulson about the collapse just yet, Tesla decided to follow the Director's example, instead ask after what her S.O had been doing in an attempt to divert attention. Which wasn't hard to do since the teenager was truly interested in that information.

Since she had also in the past few weeks, as a coupling of wondering when he was going to call, constantly wondered what it was her S.O had been doing whilst he was away. Both of these points had been something to keep her mind of the exhaustion.

Though a snowy, windy environment wasn't really on the list of things she had thought he was doing.

Honestly she had thought he was doing something along the lines of driving through California in his prized Lola while stopping some plot to blow up the White House or something. This overly imaginative view being mostly founded from the old movies she watched in her time in the plastic room.

"Okay I'm not supposed to tell you this just yet but…" The teenager perked up in interest, knowing that whatever it was that Coulson was going to tell her about was clearly something that she was going to be excited to know about.

"Fury sent my team out to the Alps after some reports came through by a science team, reports of fragmented metal found buried in the Ice. A Tech and Bio team came in before us, checking over the metal fragments, for the lead levels, possible mining locations and inspection of the aging. Results came back that the metal was German and manmade, in the 1940's,"

It didn't take less than two minutes for the teenager to put the puzzle pieces together, combined with the old news reels and stories that Coulson use to tell her about his idol, to figure out what he was insinuating.

"Metal fragments from the airplane drone that Captain America was piloting? They actually found it!"

Tesla wants to jump up in down in excitement, but the strain in her limbs says well enough that she wouldn't be able to do it. Phil also looks excited by her connecting the pieces even though his reply says that this wasn't completely certain, his grin from ear to ear saying that he certainly hoped that was the case.

"There's hasn't been any official confirmation of that, which is why we're here. But the evidence we found today says that there is a possibility that his plane is here somewhere…" The Agent walks off camera for a moment, and after some idle chat that the teen managed to hear him have with someone that was partially muffled; he walked back into the view of the transmission unit, holding what looked like a rather blurry photo in his hand.

Though of course it didn't take long for the view to right itself, at which time what was revealed to her in the photo was certainly something more than just a blurry image. Tesla didn't need her S.O to inform her of exactly what the image was meant to mean, after all he had been the one that had shown her the many old WWII newsreels about the subject.

Though seeing the HYDRA insignia at this point in history did cause the young teen's jaw to drop.

"What was it attached to?" Tesla eventually managed to ask as Coulson dropped the photo again, his look of pure excitement being shared by his protégée.

"The symbol is attached to what the team believes is a HYDRA bomber plane that went down into the ice not long before Captain America's crash. The bomb inside it isn't completely defused, though the years of being under the ice seems to have done something to the mechanism since it isn't considered highly dangerous to walk on the ice. Tomorrow we're going to start digging around this area, unearth the rest of the plane before looking into the main unit again, just to be sure,"

"This is awesome, you could be in the history books Phil, the man that found the legend," The teen was grinning at the thought of her S.O being the one to find his idol in the ice. Though of course the agent knew that if they did manage to find the Captain, the last thing that SHIELD would do would be to let the world know exactly who found it and what else they would have found in the cold.

Still, it was a nice thought.

"I doubt that, anyway that's what I've been doing so I'd like to know about you. Your deception training certainly hasn't started,"

With a sigh that was audible enough for the older agent to know that she wasn't going to try her hand at any more amateur deception, (leaving the teenager to wonder when exactly the raining was going to start).

"There's some medical stuff I have to go through, diets and that. It's nothing really, just another block I gotta hurdle over. Not the worst I've had to wade through so I'll manage," She tried to brush it off as something not that important, though really she was frustrated at the thought of more things to go through, more challenges to face to get to that end line of being the hero she wanted to be.

Agent Coulson of course could tell that she was actually bothered, and as a result turned into 'Serious Coulson mode'.

"You know even though the video line might be faulty, but I can still tell when something is bothering you. This medical check over and diet is meant to help you, so don't try to rush through it. Work with the medical team, with your trainers, and time will pass more easily. If you refuse to work through it as you are ordered than Fury will only make it even harder on you,"

Agent Coulson's advice was something of a comfort more than a point in the right direction. OF course she knew that going against this or rushing through it with no real work on her part was only ever going to piss of Fury and hurt her in the end.

"I understand, thank you,"

The teenager's S.O only relaxed from his serious stance after she confirmed understanding and accepted his advice. The older agent broke the serious mood the conversation had turned too with a stretch of his back muscles and a sigh.

"Well, I've got some rest to catch up on before tomorrow, and no doubt the medical professionals have told you to rest to before your diet begins. I'll call again the next time I get the chance,"

Considering how long it took until he called her this first time, Tesla figured that it was going to be another few weeks to a month before that would happen again. But, at least now she was sure on what he was doing, and the exciting implications behind it. That should keep her motivated for the next call where no doubt he would update her on his mission.

"Okay, bye Phil,"

"Goodnight Tessa. Remember though, the wind blows the hardest the closest you get to the mountain top,"

After delivering the last piece of rather poetic advice, the older agent finally cut off the video communication, the holo screen that before had his face blinked with the SHIELD insignia before shutting off altogether.

For a few moments the teenager continued to sit at the end of her bunk, before eventually motivating herself to get the rest that the Professor and now her S.O had ordered for her. After a moment of strain that was fighting through her exhaustion to stand in order to shut off her room light, Tesla collapsed once more onto her bunk, letting her tired eyes finally shut into what she would hope was a blissful sleep.

* * *

 **April 16** **th** **, 2011 0500 hours**

The next morning wasn't her best, as her sleep turned out to be anything but blissful. Continuous wakes in the night and almost hallucinatory nightmares grown from her exhaustion taking over her mind whenever it actually allowed her rest. It was hellish, and the bags under her eyes were evidence enough of that.

Tesla washed her face and got ready for training, trying t ignore the way her arms didn't like being lifted as she got dressed. The teen managed to remember to take the vitamin pills she had been prescribed and tried to make the best of today, keeping Agent Coulson's last few words of goodbye in her mind as a motivator.

And that seemed to work for her as far as she used her energy to walk down the corridors and into the training room. But unfortunately it didn't do her much help when she actually walked in and went to greet her trainer, only to find that Agent Barton wasn't there.

Agent Romanoff was.

"Let's begin,"

* * *

 **Please review, constructive criticism always welcome.**


	7. Phobos

**Warning: Mild Descriptions of an anxiety attack.**

* * *

Tesla was trying her best to follow Romanoff's orders during training without rolling her eyes.

Really she was.

But of course the red headed agent would eventually notice, and a part of the teenager knew that that was partly what she wanted. Too somehow let her current trainer know that she didn't like her. And yet there was still a part of Tesla that also didn't want Romanoff to detect, that she wanted to keep her distain to herself. Especially since the whole reason she didn't like Romanoff was simply because when they met she stared at her weird.

Honestly Tesla was hoping when she left the plastic room she wouldn't be that childish enough to dislike someone on the most odd of reasons. But that only seemed to add to her annoyance, which somehow allowed itself to be pointed towards Romanoff as well, as if it was her fault that she was being so immature.

"Hit harder,"

Well, the fact that she was running an already exhausted Tesla completely ragged certainly wasn't giving the older agent any brownie points. Still the teen did as ordered, to the best of her ability. The teenager hit as hard as she could manage for a time when the red head ordered it, until eventually it became obvious that her lower half could no longer handle the stress and she nearly keeled over.

Thankfully her punching bag was there for her to put her arms around before she could fall and allowed her to straighten up again. But of course it took a moment longer than Romanoff liked, and the trainer reprimanded her for it.

"Get up,"

"I'm doing my best. I can't manage more this right now,"

"On the contrary you need to do more right now, get up,"

It became apparent then that the teenager had just about all that she could take of all of this.

"I can't do anything more, I'm burned out and just can't, I can barely stand," Tesla had managed to maneuver herself so she was looking the famous Black Widow in the eye to confront her, though the fact that the red head was taller than her was something of an issue when it came to appearing unthreatened.

However Agent Romanoff seemed not even the slightest bit bothered by the fact that Tesla was standing up to her. Though what she replied back with was certainly a good enough indicator as to why that was.

"And what about when you're in too deep in a dangerous mission, with your back against the wall, injured and seemingly no way out. Are you going to falter then, when you can barely stand? Are you going to stop fighting?"

Tesla didn't want to admit that she had a point, and instead was emotion filled and stupid enough in that moment to keep arguing with the Agent.

"That would be different,"

"Without this training the only difference is that you'll most surely die then. If you don't know how to defend yourself using only the last of your strength to get your job done, you'll only be a weakness and a failure. And not just to your mission, but to your team and your S.O. Now get up and hit harder,"

See, Tesla was going to stop after that last attempt at arguing back. But then she had to go and indicate to the teenager that she was, in any small way, a failure to Coulson. It was needless to say that a pressure point had been hit and now she was fuming.

"I am not a failure!"

And for some reason that the teenager wasn't complete aware of in that moment, Romanoff seemed to look the slightest bit impressed.

"Not yet it seems, I can tell because you're standing again. How about you continue to prove me wrong, hit harder,"

A quick look own told Tesla that her current trainer was correct, she was standing again. Apparently being pissed off played t her advantage. The teenager placed that in that back of her mind to remember as she turned back to the punching back and without anymore words continued to hit as hard as she could, through the burn of her muscles and her exhaustion.

It seemed she was doing a better job now, since Romanoff didn't give another order.

When training did finally end a few hours later, there was no talk between the two of them since that confrontation, and certainly Tesla wasn't feeling the strength to start up again. Her legs were now shaking slightly but she delegated to ignore that whilst wiping the sweat off of her brow with her towel. However it seemed that Romanoff had gotten into something of a chatty mood now that training was over.

The trainer sat next to the younger agent, while still leaving a little space for the teen to keep, something of a physical indication that she knew that Tesla was still uncomfortable with her.

"You haven't asked about Agent Barton yet,"

"I didn't think you'd tell me if I did ask," It's out before the teen could even think to censor herself, and she waits for Romanoff to drop the conversation and not tell her after all as a punishment. Instead the Agent doesn't seem that bothered, and had possibly even expected this response somewhat.

"Last night Barton was signed up to do a deep cover mission in the Philippians, it's expected that he'll be gone for six months at the least,"

Tesla silently chewed on the inside of her cheek as Romanoff revealed the facts of Barton's absence. She couldn't help but think that this must have had something to do with her and their rather disastrous ending training session. Surely it couldn't really be because of the fact that she had passed out, after all Agent Barton was a professional, he was even the one that had managed to recruit Romanoff. It was very unlikely that her little illness spell would have him off and running.

Perhaps it was because of the fact that she had questioned him about her strange exhaustion, and the weird moment of silence between them. Was it possible that he had left to avoid any more questions? That there was something he knew about this problem of her's and was avoiding her on purpose because of that…

No, Tesla shook of the very idea; after all he was her trainer and clearly was worried about her when she had fallen. If he knew something roe about the situation, he would definitely tell her. At least Telsa trusted him enough to feel that he would tell her.

"I guess you're going to be my trainer until he comes back?" Honestly Tesla didn't even attempt to hide her disappointment and already awaiting the miserable time that would be the next few months of training with Agent Romanoff. But for whatever reason the older agent made no comment on her now apparent dislike of her, instead the famous Black Widow just stood up and dismissed her.

Tesla took a moment to get herself on her feet and stumbling over to the training room exit, looking back for a moment to Agent Romanoff as she was leaving, noting that the older agent wasn't too far away. Something wrestled in the teenager for a few moments and before she could help herself it just…

Well, slipped out would be the best way to explain it.

"I don't like you, you know that right?"

"Yes I do,"

Romanoff's sort of straight to the point and nearly emotionless response was both a good and annoying thing for the teenager to think about as she left the training room.

It was good since it showed Tesla that it was okay to not like her, while also being a reminder that the teen still had to work with the agent, and would do so anyway.

At the same time the trainee found it annoying since again that immature part of her wanted Romanoff to be bothered by it. Perhaps she had also been looking for a fight as well as a confirmation to her trainer about how she felt.

But of course she didn't take into consideration that maybe the agent wouldn't give a damn about whether Tesla liked her or not.

As Tesla walked back to her bunk room in order to get a little rest before she was inevitability called out for more training, she was glad to have something interesting to mull over as she lied back on the bedding. Especially since any previous attempts to take a nap always turned up for the worse.

* * *

Her mess that was an attempt to take a quick nap was thankfully interrupted by an alarm on her holo screen. The teen sat up, at least as quickly as she could manage to do so, and read what order was currently flashing across the screen.

 **Agent Tesla will report to Professor Helen Cho in ten minutes.**

Tesla got to her feet and moved herself to the Medical section, doing her best to maneuver herself around the corridors that had the largest groups of people. Because of her… condition, Tesla's usual daily routine was to avoid contact with every other agent and official of SHIELD to the best of her ability. And before her recent collapse, that was a very easy thing to do.

Usually she would walk closely against the wall, and the agents that walked the same corridors that led to and from the training room knew who she was, and so knew to avoid her. And that was how it had been for the past few months, and most days the teen was generally fine with it. Other days, not so much.

Other days she would watch the small groups of other young agents that were obviously friends, laughing and chatting amongst each other as they moved through the throng of other SHIELD officials. She would watch them accidentally bumping into one another, jokingly punch their shoulders or shove playfully. Sometimes she would even see two agents secretively hold hands.

Other days… Tesla was reminded that she might like being alone sometimes, but she didn't fancy being lonely.

…

The corridors that led to the Medical section were of course more bustling than those of the training rooms and the ones leading towards her bunk. There were medical professionals, injured and other important agents walking amongst themselves back and forth. The teen did her best to avoid them all, pushing herself against the wall and walking as quickly as she could manage to her destination.

This was the first time that she had to walk alone to the Medical section, so there was no official higher up agent to get the lower levels to part like the red seas to make this journey somewhat safer. It was just her, attempting to move away from the throng and keep everyone around her safe.

And with the coupling feeling of her exhaustion and the fact that she was given a minimum time to get to Professor Cho, it certainly made this an even more difficult task to carry out. Tesla could feel her legs shaking somewhat and her neck had starting aching. But the longer she walked, the more panicky she became when a certain fact became clear to her.

She didn't remember where the Professor's lab was. Or if she was even in the right part of the medical section.

The thought of turning back and trying again only seemed to make the teen feel worse, her already stressed body not taking this knowledge very well as Tesla became aware of the fact that she very badly needed to sit down and just… breathe.

But she couldn't do that… that would make her late and that could be seen as disobeying an order despite her best attempt to do as she was told.

Now her brain was filled with conflicting thoughts that turned her train of thought into more of a train wreck, thought after thought almost talking over each other and into a pile of just confusion, giving her no real answers on what she should do next. Really it seemed as though her mind was attacking her, the only real outcome that her brain wanted for this was to just upset herself more and more until she couldn't possibly handle it.

Her thoughts consisted of the following overlapping issues:

She just having some kind of sleep or rest that wasn't a complete nightmare and doing what she was told and getting to the Professor's lab. But then she was conflicted on where it was and whether or not she should ask someone, which the answer to that she decided was a negative. After all she was already trying to avoid them so she didn't hurt them, walking right out into the throng was a bad idea. But then how she was going to get to the Professor? She just wanted to sleep. None of this would happen is she was just normal, why did she have to be this way, what was wrong with her? Why did Barton and Coulson have to leave? Was it because of her? Why was she so exhausted? She just wanted to sleep. And then she was thinking about Romanoff and the training session and then… And then…

Tesla noticed her breath was getting very heavy, yet faster and tears were burning in the sides of her eyes.

She wrung her hands together, knuckles turning white as she squeezed. She was still desperate to keep herself as far from people as possible, not wanting to get lost in her panic enough that she didn't notice someone walking past a little too close.

The teenager finally managed to decide on something to do; she definitely needed to calm down.

But how could she do that?

What was important to note, was that while Coulson was her designated S.O, he had not been able to council her like a superior officer was meant to before this point. This was mostly because he was sent away to the Alps not long after the decision was made. And since she also didn't want to change S.O's, it was decided that any specialized training was going to have to wait until he got back. This was important because what the teenager didn't know was that stress, anxiety and how to deal with it in any situation was also supposed to come up from his training with her.

So Tesla was sort of left to figure out how to clear her mind and cool down by herself. While also surrounded by people that she could kill on instant contact. Not a happy thought but the teenager tried not to focus on that, since it was surely not going to help her.

She needed something else to focus on, outside of the issues that were talking over each other in a cacophony of uncomfortable noise in her brain. Something calming…

Tesla had never been so grateful of 21st century art decor and it's obsession with waterfalls.

The young agent maneuvered her way through people to the strange waterfall statue as quickly as she could manage. When she did make it to her target, Tesla decided not to try sitting across from it, since there was a chance that she would be too exhausted to get up again.

So the teenager just stood to the side of the waterfall, listening to the soft sounds of the water as it slid down from the smooth rock of the statue and into the small pool below it. Focusing on it certainly did make Tesla feel better as she could feel her shoulders beginning to relax from their tense state, and her breathing managed to slow to a normal pattern. She wanted to stay here in this rather relaxing moment, not wanting to think about all the things that were bothering her before.

But still the young agent knew that she needed to keep going eventually, that she needed to follow her orders and seek out Professor Cho. But surely the medical professional would understand that she got a little lost, after all nobody's perfect. And even if she was reprimanded for it, it wouldn't be the end of the world entirely.

Tesla let this thought melt through her brain a few more times, letting the reality of her situation be known to her as actually not that bad. Everything was going to be fine.

Deep breaths in, then out.

"Um, Hello?"

And just when the teenager had managed to calm herself, a voice interrupted her process that caused Tesla to nearly jump right out of her skin. The teen's head snapped up so fast there was definitely a cracking noise in her neck. The speaker wasn't that far away from her, only a few centimeters, a few centimeters to much in the young agent's opinion as she took a slight step away from them.

The speaker was young woman, her appearance was one that could best be described as mouse like in nature and yet it suited her in the most perfect of ways. Her hair was a light brown, her clothes immaculate under her white pristine lab coat that spoke of her scientist status and short stature. Her features were as soft as her tone when she spoke, a sign that she meant only genuine kindness despite the fact that Tesla's first response was to draw away from her.

"Hi there, I saw you staring at the statue and… are you alright?"

Tesla stared at her for a few seconds, and blinked once before she realized that she was supposed to reply. The young agent started when she fully realized that fact and started talking.

"I'm… I'm okay, I just got a bit flustered and… I'm lost," The teenager relented at the end, deciding to not let her embarrassment stop her from seeking help that she thankfully didn't have to reach out for. The kind agent gave a small smile that spoke of her understanding Tesla's predicament completely.

"Ah, Headquarters can be a maze sometimes, especially if you're drained," Tesla was at first relieved to know that she wasn't the only one that could get lost in this place, though she was definitely confused by the last part of the scientist's reply.

"Right…How did you know-"

"Your exhaustion, I'm something of a medical amongst other things. You're muscles are tense yet your shoulders are drooping, classic signs. Are you looking for the sleep deprivation study unit?"

While asking what exactly the sleep deprivation study unit was about would be an interesting conversation to have, the teen decided to instead stick to what she needed to ask after.

"No, I'm looking for Professor Helen Cho, I was supposed to meet her as quickly as possible but… I kind of got swept away, now I don't really know where I am,"

Tesla felt her hands clasp and twist in each other's hold as she felt embarrassed again. Thankfully the Scientist didn't give her the tongue lashing that she was expecting from another SHIELD official when saying that she got a little lost, instead there was just more... niceness.

"Don't worry it happens, you'll find your way around soon enough. Professor Cho's lab actually isn't that far from here-"

Before the Scientist could completely divulge to the teen exactly where her destination was (and thank god it wasn't that far from here), the surprisingly nice conversation was interrupted by the arrival of another scientist.

The new arrival was a slight bit taller than the kind woman, his mannerisms more describable as a tamed lion. Not that Tesla thought on the get go that he was easily cowed or overly dangerous, but the way the man's body language was more closed in than the other scientists spoke that he wasn't as trusting as she was. His expression fell more on a lowered brow that said he judged on impact, and was hard to get to know on the first greeting. And considering how close he stood next to the woman, it was easy to tell exactly who he would be more than willing to let out the lion side for.

"Simmons! I found the right kind of oxygen compression levels for the night night gun-"

The time the male scientist had reached the end of his sentence was exactly when he realized that the woman, or rather Simmons, was not on her own. Tesla watched as the almost organic response judgment crossed the man's face when looking over the teenager. Simmons stepped in before the other scientist could say anything that was obviously following that critical look.

"Fitz this is, sorry I don't think I actually introduced myself. I'm Jemma Simmons, Biochem division and this is my lab partner Leo Fitz, he's tech,"

Jemma held her hand out for the teen to take, and Tesla stared at it for a second before it clicked again. She didn't know who Tesla was, that would explain why she has been standing closer than most did. The teen felt herself deflate a little at the knowledge that as soon as Simmons became fully aware of who she was, that her behavior to Tesla could possibly change, that she might take those steps back that the young agent had already taken herself.

Before Tesla could be the one to break the news to the older woman, Fitz was the first to see the tech gauntlets that were permanently attached to the wrists of the teen. And so he was the one to take that step back, the gentle hold that no one had really realized the man had on the middle of Simmons arm, caused her to move back with him. Which was of course when Simmons noticed the defining thing that told of Tesla's identity, and was probably why she didn't fight Fitz's pull.

"Oh… right, you're Project Tesla,"

"Agent Tesla," The teenager corrected, a little more tersely than perhaps she had intended, but all the same Tesla felt that she deserved to be referred to as more than an experiment now. The title of Project was something of the past, she was definitely an Agent, and she was working her hardest for that title to deserve it. Simmons looked as though she regretted saying it, so the teen decided to let it go.

There was a very awkward moment of silence that the three agents of SHIELD were left to stand in as Tesla didn't feel the need to talk anymore, and really wanted to just go and find Professor Cho, while Simmons looked as though she wanted to say something though was worried about offending the young agent even more. Fitz was stuck in the situation he had just walked into and was too awkward to walk away from it, so he was the one that decided to interrupt the break in conversation.

"So… how are the gauntlets… working for you?"

"Uh, great. They're really great. I mean makes it possible to make some kind of contact with the rest of the human race so, great work from the Bio and tech division. Thank you," Tesla awkwardly tripped over a compliment for the science division that these two belonged to for creating the gauntlets, feeling a little guilty at the way she was a bit cold to Simmons just a moment before.

Her compliment seemed to make the right kind of impression since it had the two of them, even Fitz a little more surprisingly, grinning. Before the teen could ask why they were as proud as punch, and eventually make the connection that they were actually the ones that assisted in creating the gauntlets, there was a rapid beeping sound that came from one of the pockets of the Scientists.

Fitz was the first one to search his pockets, pulling out a small pager-like device, nodding once to Simmons and Tesla, which must have been his way of saying goodbye, before suddenly walking off in the same direction from which he had come. Simmons was a little more polite than her lab partner, and turned to the teen before she walked off as well.

"Um, well back to work right? I'm glad the gauntlets have worked out so well. Professor Cho's lab is just down that corridor and then you take a left, it should be right in front of you," Simmons pointed to a corridor that was just beyond the both of them, before turning to walk off as well.

"Thank you!" The teen said gratefully to the retreating mousy scientist, who smiled back before walking back to her shared lab with Fitz. Tesla watched her go for a moment before hurrying off to the best of her ability into the direction that Simmons have given her, thankful that at the end of that corridor and to the left she found the exact lab she was looking for.

The teen could feel her muscles that were already as tense as Simmons had already stated, but she could also feel the burn of it. It was possible that walking fast here that she had done wasn't that great of an idea, since she could also feel a rather pronounced pain in her lungs with every breath that spoke of her fatigue, but still she didn't want to be any later than she was at this time.

Professor Cho didn't make any comments of her lateness, which was a relief and confirmation to the teen that just as she had earlier thought; it wasn't the end of the world. Instead the medical professional got down to business and explained the issues that the teenager was having and what she was going to need.

"Your samples show that your energy intake for your body, outside of the electric current, is plummeting dangerously due to loss of not just your ATP but other valuable vitamins and minerals. We managed to track down that daily intake you are going to need in order to be in shape enough to even walk around and do your usual scheduled training. Thankfully they can be replenished back in your system with the consistent intake of this,"

A small energy drink bottle was presented to the teenager, the colorless odor inside it being the main point of interest to Tesla. The teen held the bottle in her hands, watching the way the liquid moved inside. It looked something closer to a gelatin than water by the way it moved. She didn't take off the lid to inspect the smell, since she guessed that it couldn't be anything nice. Already her imagination was filled with a scent of a cloying and sickeningly sweet that the taste would only make worse.

"I can still eat other things right?" Tesla really didn't want to think that this was all she was going to have to eat for the rest of her life.

"Of course, I wouldn't make you have this for the rest of your life. But I would like to give you the advice to make sure you eat the major food groups and stay healthy," The medical professional smiled as she walked around the medical lab and looked over a few machines that needed her attention also, other inventions and experiments that took her time. Eventually the woman returned again and continued to explain the situation that Telsa now had with this liquid, with a Esky box in her hands.

"We call it Vita, something a short hand for all the vitamins and minerals that are in it that is necessary to build up your ATP and other factors. You need to drink a bottle a day and you'll have to return here every fortnight for us to refill your Vita bottles and keep you in the best health we can manage. There will also be a check up every month, just to see if anything changes and if the Vita is helping you. Okay?"

"Okay, thank you Professor," Tesla attempted to take the Esky filled with Vita bottles, but the weak muscles in her arms decided that even this weight was too much for her in that moment, and she managed to gently place it back down on the empty lab table nearby. The Professor watched her for a moment before speaking up.

"Ah, we'll have it delivered to your bunk room. So, just take that one bottle with you for now,"

"Thanks again," Tesla said, but the Professor's attention was taken away by her other experiments/studies that she didn't have the time to say goodbye to the teen, so she instead nodded in goodbye to the room at large and stumbled off into the corridors again and off to her bunk room, hoping that she would make it before collapsing in exhaustion.

Both emotionally because of her panic attack that she was still repairing from, and physically thanks to the shake in her legs and strain in her shoulders.

* * *

 **Please review, constructive criticism always welcome.**


	8. Ponos

When reaching the sweet, sweet safety that was her bunk, Tesla placed the bottle on a side table nearby and collapsing into it, wanting to just rest for all eternity. Needless to say she was asleep the moment her head hit the pillow.

Another communication signal from her holo screen awoke the teenager from the painless peace that was for once was devoid of nightmares. Really if it didn't turn out that the one that had contacted her at this time was Coulson, Tesla would have been ready and ripped to attack the person who dared to take her away from that.

 _ **Agent Coulson has left a message.**_

"Play," She said with the best enthusiasm that the teen could manage with her combination of having just been woken up and her muscles all aching at the exact same time. Her eyes spied the Vita bottle sitting exactly where she had left it before drifting off happily before looking back to the screen.

As before, there was a SHIELD logo that took up the holo screen before Phil managed to get the visual feed working, on his side anyway. The teen couldn't help but smile at the recording as he tapped at the screen again, an annoyed scowl crossing his face before he decided to eventually just deal with it and get on with what he was messaging her about.

"Hi Tessa, I know I messaged you a little sooner than even I thought. But that's because the mission in the Alps is being shut down. Everybody's packing up and moving out back to their headquarters. So I guess we'll be seeing each other soon," Tesla's eyebrows rose at the sudden drop of this news, and while she was happy to know that she would be seeing her S.O sooner than she previously thought, the teen couldn't help but wonder what would have caused the expedition to be packed up at this time.

Generally a mission isn't abandoned so freely and suddenly, especially when it was apparent that they were close to completion. Really this is only could have been done on the order of higher grounds than SHIELD, since Fury surely wouldn't have wanted this to stop.

What would they find more important than looking for a super soldier?

Coulson's message continued over her musings.

"Oh, and make sure that you still do everything the medical teams tell you to, that includes taking the medicine Tessa," The teenager wanted to roll her eyes, but she still knew that he was right, and sighed as she looked back to the Vita bottle on her bedside table, understandably not looking forward to sampling it whatsoever, much less drinking one every day.

"Tessa," The young agent looked back to the holo screen, slightly amused as the recorded message of Coulson as he gave her a serious look. He knew her too well.

"Alright, I have to go now. I'll see you soon,"

After that brief and quick goodbye from her S.O, the holo screen shut off again, leaving Tesla with the rest of the day of ordered rest on Professor Cho's orders. And while that meant no training, no added exhaustion or strained limbs, it also meant mind crushing boredom and no chance of trying to actually sleep since nine time out of ten that didn't work out.

And so with an expression that clearly displayed her repulsion at the action, Tesla reached over and plucked the Vita bottle from the bed side table, feeling the weight of the clear liquid as it tipped to one side as she inspected it. The bottle was nearly completely full, which only called to mind the fact that the young agent was meant to drink one of these bottles per day.

So, a quick slam back swig, or a taste test?

After a moment of consideration, Tesla went with the latter as a beginner thought on what it really tasted like. And not seconds later, she regretted that decision in its entirety.

Now, the teen had certainly never drunk acid before. But if she ever did have that unfortunate experience, Tesla guessed that it would taste and feel something like this. The taste of this clear liquid was the bitter and rancid kind of burn that stung at the back of her throat and tongue in a way that only medicine could supply. It was ten minutes after that first small taste test that the sting finally eased though the coughing continued for another two.

As Tesla harshly ran her teeth over her tongue in an attempt to quicken the retreating burn, she noted to herself that from now on, she was going to have to swig this back with as much consideration that an alcoholic would give in a bar that barely passes Health and Safety checks.

Unhappy with this development but not really able to argue against it, Tesla did her best to down half of the Vita bottle at that moment, just to spare herself some pain later, though of course it didn't help that it was burning her throat at that moment.

It was apparent that sleep was really going to be hard at this moment, so Tesla messed with the control on her holo screen, trying to find the civilian network channels that were usually carefully screened into the SHIELD headquarters for Agents to enjoy.

But of course that didn't end up with too much to enjoy. Because unbeknownst to the teenager, since it was also the middle of the day, it meant the channels were filled with a lot of prime time drama soaps and commercials for blenders and cleaning products.

And while listening to a rather poorly acted monologue about the suburbs or wondering if the VacAce can really clean an oiled floor would usually be just fine to the teen, the continuing biting pain of the Vita drink made her less impressed and looking for something better. So she continued to flick through channels until she found something more appealing.

Eventually though Tesla managed to stumble and sift through the terrible prime time and found a news report that she found very interesting.

" _My priority is to get the Iron Man weapon turned over to the people of the United States of America,"_

Well that was certainly something that would catch someone's attention. And since Tesla was expecting the owner of the Iron Man suit, Anthony Stark, to be a part of some kind of hero team with her in the future, it would be interesting to know whether or not that would be just as Mr. Stark, or Iron Man.

The face of the revolutionary inventor himself graced her holo screen as it appeared that this was a news report. And considering the amount of suits and military medals, Tesla figured that this was some kind of court hearing on the government level. So did the US government want to take the Iron Man sit away from Stark?

Perhaps it was something connected to her young naiveté, Tesla was confused as to why they would want to do that in the first place. Because even though she was not that caught up with the ways of politicians, she did know from the news and comments traded in between young agents that Tony Stark's influence had held back outside attacks on America for the past six months.

If that was true, then Tesla was even more lost on the reasoning of taking that power away from someone who clearly was doing a good job with it. But still, perhaps that was still something connected to her ignorance on the ways of civilian life outside SHIELD HQ. Even so it seemed that Anthony Stark shared this sentiment with her, along with the fact that this invention was, well his.

" _Well you can forget it, I am Iron Man, the suit and I are one,"_

The government replied to this with a speech from someone that Tesla recognized by the last name as one of Starks many company competitors, but not one of the better successful ones.

" _I would now like to call on Justin Hammer, our current primary weapons contractor,"_

The CEO of Hammer industries took the mic and attempted to wrangle the attention of the room as he made a speech to the credit of the government. Tesla wasn't much of a people person and therefore was not that great at reading a person, but even an amateur such as herself could tell that Hammer seemed very… well diet substitute Stark seemed to be a good description.

However if she were to go into more detail, Tesla felt that it was like watching a lower standard Tony Stark on his worst day, worst form and with nearly all of his charm sucked out until there was only enough in his little finger. And so because of that his confidence and ego was more fragile than a wine glass in a hurricane.

Watching him talk was probably the first time that the teenager had ever seen someone literally portray a weasel. He seemed to be taking turns kissing the behinds of both Mr. Stark and the government that he was actually a contractor for. His actual opinion didn't ever seem to come into play here, so either he was really uncaring about this situation, or there was a chance that he was playing them both for something.

Justin Hammer eventually finished his speech exactly as the teen expected, as cliched as possible.

" _God bless Iron Man and God bless America,"_

Finally the rival businessman sat down and as he did so, Tesla wondered if the other civilians watching this, felt as robbed of those five minutes of precious life as she did. Since it was apparent that it was spent to unwisely give attention to a man who had absolutely no objective or end goal to show he had deserved it.

Though perhaps, that was to be expected from someone who needed a Stark-built podium to be heard by anyone in the first place. What with Hammer Industries being so unsuccessful in media attention and meaningless in its technology and end goals.

Creations are truly cut from the same cloth as their creator.

But, Tesla thought to herself as she chugged a bit of her Vita, that was none of her business.

With a burning taste that she hoped was shared in some way in the depths of Hammer's confidence, Tesla continued to watch the rest of the senate hearing, which was more of a Tony Stark defending his property from the hands of others.

" _The Council would now like to invite Colonel James Rhodes into the chamber…"_

There was more talk and evidence given by the new comer and other officials as to why the Iron Man suit should be handed over to the Government, most of this being missed by the teen as she was half bored and half way too tired to hold onto a point of opinion when it was presented to her. However nothing made her back straighten tighter than the words that followed from the Colonel reading a certain part of his report that.

" _Intelligence suggests that the devices seen in these photos are in fact attempts at making manned copies of Mr. Stark's suit. This has been corroborated by our allies and local intelligence on the ground. Indicating that these suits are at the moment, operational,"_

Several very large birds' eye view shots were provided, red circles showing exactly where these second hand suits were being built in other countries. Tesla could feel herself biting on her bottom lip in worry at the thought of there being more than one of the Iron Man suits that was anywhere but in the hands of Mr. Stark and his company, clearly the only people who would actually use that technology responsibly.

Mr. Stark himself seemed a little bothered to see these images, in fact in that moment he was the most worried that the teenager had ever seen him for as long as she had been watching this whole trial unfold. But as quickly as that worry had been on his expression, it was gone even faster and instead was masked by a face of confidence and the smallest of smirks, leading Tesla to wonder exactly what he was going to do next.

It didn't take long though to find out the answer, as with a few button clicks of the little device in his pocket, the bird's eye images were replaced with first a window filled with streaming data lines, to then actual up close videos.

Videos of the supposed fully functional suits, though to Tesla they certainly looked anything but.

Perhaps she had been spoiled by the spectacle that was the Stark Iron Man suite of armor, but she wasn't very impressed by the great hulking metal figures that trundled out of small dented warehouses, before sparking from overload and falling to the ground or shooting wildly at innocent bystanders. Most of them seemed intentionally designed so that the viewer wasn't sure whether or not there was an actual person in there, or if it was just the poorly designed metal behemoth and nothing more.

There was one metal creation however that seemed somewhat closer to resemblance to the Iron Man suit, or at least one could tell whether or not there was actually a person in there.

And it was being coached in the video, by Justin Hammer.

As this was being presented, the government officials were rushing to try and turn off the video, most probably because of the violence that was being shown there and other because they were being proved once again, as being incorrect.

Tesla winced as the pilot of the Justin Hammer suit was twisted so suddenly and violently to the right, a bone chilling snap and horrified scream from the inside of the suit causing her to grip her hands into fists in her bedding.

Thankfully the screen was shut off not a mili second afterward, Justin Hammer looking suddenly very agitated, as his secret feather s seemed to be finally ruffled. Tesla nodded to herself as it seemed that her earlier wondering if there was something more he was looking for at this senate other than doing his job for the government. He was looking for a chance to improve his own tech in building a suit. God bless Iron Man indeed.

" _I'd like to point out that that test pilot survived,"_

Tesla doubted that but still, she tried not to think about that a moment longer as Mr. Stark seemed to mercifully divert her attention.

" _The point is you're welcome. Because I am your new nuclear deterrent, it's working, we're safe. America is secure. You want my property? You can't have it, but I did you a big favor!"_

He stood from his seat and turned back to face the crowd and press at large, his one hand held up in his now famous peace sign as he ended this situation in just the way the teenager felt he would.

" _I have successfully privatized world peace,"_

For some reason the thought that the Iron Man suit, and therefore her possible future Avengers team mate was now in the clear at that moment, relaxed Tesla enough that without really realizing it, she had leaned back onto her SHIELD issue cot and felt right into an unexpected sleep.

* * *

It seemed ever since Tesla had finally managed to leave the plastic room, not only had her energy levels seemed erratic to the point of just praying that she could stand up tomorrow, but also whenever she went to bed to try and claim that energy back, she would slip in and out of consciousness, and came back more tired than before.

When she came to after unexpectedly slipping into sleep after the rather entertaining senate broadcast, the teen of course felt no better than any other morning, and so was in no good mood when she received notification to be in the training gym within the next twenty minutes.

Now if a normally physically and emotionally well adjusted Tesla was not in the mood for dealing with Romanoff, than a tired and rather grumpy version of the teenager seemed only more ticked off at even the thought of having to deal with her.

But still orders were orders despite where they came from, and that meant she needed to get moving.

After a quick change into fresher clothes and the ever reliable can of dry shampoo for when she was in a rush, (a brand of which thankfully didn't explode in her hands), Tesla felt somewhat close to refreshed and made her way to the training room with another bottle of the horrifying Vita drink in her hand. The whole trip was spent stumbling a little and glaring through sleep filled eyes at anyone who came to close as she stuck to her side of the hallway.

It was not her morning, and it certainly didn't feel as though her day was going to get better.

As she pressed her access codes into the keypad lock of the training room, possibly a little too forcefully, the young agent was expecting that when she opened the gym doors, she would be greeted by her trainer. And that the red headed agent would have quite the grueling and muscle destroying training for her despite how sluggish she was feeling.

But of course that was not the case, as when the large training room bulkhead doors opened and slid apart, the person that was waiting for her was not her regular red headed mortal enemy, but someone she didn't know or at least remember on first sight.

"Well hey there Sparky, how's it feel to be outside the box?"

The man that stood in the place of the teen's usual trainer looked to be in his mid thirties to late forties, hair slicked back and muscles looked tough and aged. He had been through some tough missions; it was easy to tell from how sun bleached his skin was, and not in the vacation way. It was more in the sense that it seemed like he had been stuck and forced to survive in the Mojave Desert several times whilst waiting for a pick up that seemed unlikely to come with every passing hour.

There was something about how confident and at ease he looked that put the teen off a bit, after all he was completely relaxed despite the fact that he was in the same room as someone who could stop his heart by simply poking him. Even Fury had a little tightness in his shoulder muscles when first meeting her, and Coulson, despite how caring he was in trying to make it look that he wasn't bothered, would sometimes take a smallest of steps to the side when he thought she wasn't looking and he felt was too close.

How was it that this man in front of her was completely ice cool about this situation? The answer was something Tesla felt would be stuck in between brain damage from a previous mission that damaged his natural ability to tell that he was in some kind of danger, or he was playing the part of being not bothered, that he somehow managed to control his muscles to look open and friendly.

Either way she was worried about him, thought whether it was of him, or for him depended on what the answer was.

Tesla shook it off to the back of her mind replied back to the man's attempt at a conversation starter.

"Erm it's pretty great, do I… Sorry have we met?"

He chuckled, and stepped forward a bit, but not close enough for her to feel worries about him again. He didn't hold his hand out, not that she expected him to, but for some reason the teen felt like she wanted him to. It was odd that despite the fact that she found his over relaxed attitude at that moment, she had already found his confidence and smile somewhat likable and it certainly drew her in.

"Agent John Garret. We talked once over the communication unit in the plastic room, Christmas Eve,"

A moment of thinking later clicked the voice in her head to a quick introduction that was in the last vestiges of her memory, and remembered that even back then she had found his voice somewhat inexplicably likable. Especially what with the numerous stories of missions-gone-wrong that he told had the teen, though at the time truthfully Tesla was a little more interested in the ones that also included her S.O.

That was probably the first time that Tesla had realized how much of a bad ass Coulson really was.

"Oh right, well it's nice to actually meet you. Erm… Why have I been called to the training room, and where is my trainer?"

"Agent Romanoff was sent off two days ago to Stark Industries to babysit Mr. Stark, so I've been set up as your trainer for today,"

Tesla figured that SHIELD would probably talk to the billionaire after his performance at the senate, well mostly she expected that they would give him a slap on the wrist and tried once again to tell him to remain as covert as possible (not that that would work). Having an agent that was as high a level as Romanoff to stick around him, long enough for it to be described as babysitting, was something that was considered a bit of overkill to the teenager for the way Stark had acted to the government.

Still, Tesla guessed that she probably didn't know the full story of what was going on because of her level in the agency and such, so she decided to shrug it off and start on training with Agent Garret.

"Alright, should we get started?"

"Cut right to the chase huh? I might just like you Sparky. Let's get started. Lift those weights,"

* * *

Tesla fell from the metal bar, once again feeling the ache in her arms that protested any chance of being able to lift her own body up more than the thirty times she had previously managed it.

Any previous hatred of the way that Romanoff trained her was siphoned straight from her mind as she once again heard the authoritarian voice of John Garret in her ear.

"Come on Sparky, I asked for twenty more,"

"I think I'm going to throw up," Was the best reply she could articulate at the time to her current trainer, but for some reason the teen got a good feeling that this wasn't going to faze him in the slightest.

"Go ahead, but that next twenty lifts is happening either way kiddo, right after you clean it up," Of course the man didn't disappoint, as he stood not to far away and waited for the teen to get back on her feet. Knowing that it was a choice between actually going through with vomiting and having to clean that up, or just getting back to her feet and doing her best before falling down once again, Tesla tried her best to try and lift herself on her feet.

It took a little longer than expected, but thankfully it seemed that Garret was going to be patient and wait for her to get back on her feet instead of pushing her in that regard as well. Perhaps it was because he could tell that she was doing her best to get up, or possibly because he actually was aware of the physical issues she was having at the moment and so would only push her in certain moments instead of pushing her all the way.

Her hands grabbed onto the high bar again, the familiar feel of the metal in her hands now being something of a cutting pain than the cool sensation it was in the beginning. Her shoulder muscles tensed and burned at the thought of having to be used to lift her off the ground again, but still she tried to do the action again.

One more, just one more.

She repeated this mantra in her mind as she craned her neck forward a bit and lifted herself up so her chin would meet her hands on the metal bar. Teeth needed to be gritted tight together as she finally managed it, her back muscles screaming in reply but she did her best to ignore them as she stayed there for the five seconds that was necessary to count it.

"Okay that's one kid, let's have nineteen more,"

She could feel her legs shaking at the idea of having to catch herself once again, but still it was better than remaining up on the bar, so she let go and felt herself fall flat on the mat once again.

This time she had managed to get up somewhat faster, at least quick enough that Garret didn't comment on it and she tried once again to lift herself up.

This continued on until she had managed the next eighteen lifts. Thankfully it seemed that her stamina for that day was good enough to last her through this training session and she managed not to embarrass herself once again by fainting or anything like that.

"Okay Sparky you can rest up now,"

Tesla let her muscles mercifully relax, her body slumping even more into the training mat that at that moment despite its hard rubber and foam making, felt like the softest of clouds.

Garret once again acted nothing like either of her trainers before him as while Romanoff or even Barton would leave almost immediately after they had declared that the training time was over, as unlike them the older agent sat nearby on one of the many benches used to weight lifting, and watched her for a time.

The teen couldn't think of anything to say to start a conversation, which didn't really bother Tesla all that much since she didn't want to talk at that moment anyway, what little of her concentration that was left was focused instead on relaxing whilst also ignoring the pain in her muscles. However her temporary trainer seemed to want differently as he started up a conversation with her.

"So, any chance of seeing your famous firework show Sparky?" The teen turned her head in the direction of her trainer as he asked for this strange request. Her eyebrows were certainly raised as nice again how close he had been when they first met settling back into her mind, and all at once she felt the overwhelming urge to decline.

After all she was supposed to look out for the people that were around her, and this guy was always standing a little too close when she wasn't lighting up, who knows what could happen whilst she was a completely exposed live wire.

"No, I don't think I could manage that right now,"

"Too bad, Barton told me how you decimated those shooting range dummy heads before he left for the Philippians. Was hoping to see it for myself while I was still here,"

"You're leaving too?" Honestly Tesla was a little relieved to hear that she was not going through that hell that was described as a training session, but it was certainly a peak in her interest to hear that another one of her high level trainers was going to be sent away from headquarters.

"Yeah sorry kiddo but eventually I'm also getting shipped out of headquarters. I'm going out to Rio and the surrounding towns. Apparently the Big, Green and Mean has finally been spotted but was chased out by General Ross,"

Tesla's eyebrows rose as well at the information that the Hulk, and as a result, Bruce Banner, had finally been found by the military. Apparently after the situation that created the green giant, Dr Banner had managed to drop off the radar of the general military. The leader of this dog hunt being General Ross, a name that Tesla's eyes had skimmed over when she was reading the scientist's and his large green problem's file, and considering what the file said he had done, she still treated it with the same disregard as she felt he deserved.

Of course Banner had never left the ever watching sight of SHIELD, as they had always known of his position in Rio, and had for the past few months, apparently approved of just letting him stay where he was and work at the bottle factory.

Bruce being found and the Hulk being unleashed in Rio because of the general US military was a problem, a problem that Director Fury certainly was not going to like.

"Seems like everyone is scrambling to be there right now, mostly to just to grab whatever evidence they can, especially anything genetic relating to the Big Guy. Anything we find that we can keep from General Ross, we're going to take it.

"Is that what you're going to Rio to do? A clean up and clear out mission?" A clean up and clear out was something of a favorite to hear about for Tesla when she was in the plastic room, as it was usually finished with someone having to take down a civilian who was getting a little too agitated at the questioning. Really it was the parts of the story where they would walk in all bad-ass and take control of the situation that Tesla really enjoyed.

"Well that and we might need to have a quick chat and medical check with the workers at the bottle factory and people that lived in the same building as Banner, and that's just for starters. Any chance they could be infected is a bad one, and something we will also need to clear up as soon as possible,"

"I thought Gamma poisoning could only pass on through the blood?"

Garret looked a little impressed that she knew that small tidbit information, though really anyone could have known that if they read Dr Banner's file. He acknowledged this before continuing on with his explanation of what he needed to do in Rio.

"You've done your reading. But yes, the gamma sickness can only be delivered to another poor sucker through blood contact, which would have to be having the blood enter your veins or digestive system. Now that can be done in plenty of interesting ways, which is why we need to swipe the areas as clean as we can. Besides, there are plenty of people on the planet that won't change into Hulks like Banner can after being poisoned so heavily,"

"No, they'll just die won't they?" Tesla bit her bottom lip at the thought of it, of just being perfectly healthy one day, then be suddenly dying the next. The thought of it was something of a nightmare in itself, much less having to actually live it.

"Correct kiddo, painful way to go, Gamma poisoning. Still, at least it isn't anything like what Stark has going on in his gut at the moment,"

His words had Tesla surprisingly sitting up from her position on the training mat despite her muscle pain, the widening of the whites of her eyes being news enough to the trainer that she had no idea what she was talking about. He seemed to straighten up a little more as well, his own expression giving away the fact that perhaps he already knew he wasn't supposed to let that bit of information slip out to the teen.

For a moment too long there was no follow up, so Tesla pushed the issue.

"What's happened to Mr. Stark?"

"Aw jeez I knew there was a reason Fury told me not to blab too much while I was here… I guess since I've already said quite a bit I might as well tell you everything else,"

There wasn't really an edge of a seat for Tesla to literally be sitting on, but she definitely felt as though she was sitting on one as she awaited the rest of the older agent's explanation of what was going on in relation to poisoning and Mr. Stark.

"Mr. Stark was confirmed this morning to have some kind of palladium positioning, a mineral that was in relation to the Arc reactor in his chest that has been keeping him alive so far. That's why Romanoff has been sent off to watch Stark, he's a bit of a loose cannon when he's healthy, lord knows what will happen now that he's…"

"Dying," Tesla finished rather lamely as she looked down at her hands in her lap, the previous though of the nightmare of being healthy one day and dead the next springing to mind with a vengeance.

The teenager had been worried before about the thought of the Iron Man suit being taken away from the healthy living Stark, now she was downright freaking out at the thought of him dying and what that could mean as a result.

Would the government and Justin Hammer continue on with their barrage of attacks and subpoenas until they got their hands on the Stark technology, without the shield of Tony himself to stop them? The thought of them getting their trigger happy hands on the Iron Man suit was definitely something to be concerned about, and perhaps that was the first thing that occurred to Director Fury when he heard that Stark was dying.

A possible Gamma poisoning and the possible death of a blockade of destruction.

What a big week Fury, and SHIELD as a whole, must be having.

For a moment there was nothing but silence as Tesla's mind digested this information. Suddenly it was interrupted as the watch on Garret's wrist lit up and buzzed a warning at him, causing him to look down at the piece of tech before quickly standing on his feet and collecting up his already packed gym bag.

"Well, I better start to make my way to dispatch for my flight to Rio. Thanks for the workout Sparky, hopefully next time we meet you'll be up for a light show," Garret made his way to the large bulk head door that would lead out to the corridor, and left through it as soon as it opened without another word.

Tesla watched him go as she remained lying on the training mat, her worry over current events still not being enough to get her to sit up completely. So for a few more moments the teen allowed herself to just lay there and drink some of the hideous medicine in the meantime.

Perhaps it wasn't going to be her week either.

* * *

 **Please review, constructive criticism always welcome.**


	9. Clotho

**A/N: This chap has parts that take place in the Marvel Short "A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To Thor's Hammer".**

 **Please enjoy!**

* * *

As soon as Tesla was capable of standing up without falling back down again, she made to leave the training room and back to her room, even though her back was somewhat stooped because of the horrifying work out that she received from Agent Garret. As she made it out into the corridor outside the training room and started walking down her side of the wall to her room, the young agent noticed something was going on.

There were usually agents that would be running to and fro through the corridors as they tried to make their way as fast as possible to a meeting or a brief session, nothing to really worry about it as it was just the SHIELD environment as a whole. However, it was easy to notice that something was up, not because there were people still running around or anything.

But more because there was barely anyone around, in fact the teenager had never seen the corridors so empty in her time outside the plastic room.

Where everyone was, wasn't hard to figure out. Most likely half were busy trying to contain the possibility of a gamma outbreak, the rest rushing to try and find a cure for Mr. Stark's palladium poisoning. Of course Tesla was figuring before she left the training room that the Science division of SHIELD would be the ones that would disappear into their labs and not be seen until the double crisis was over.

Apparently she was wrong as that was not the case. Of course she knew that Operations would be sent off to secure areas in Rio and a little bit of security in Miami for Stark, but not to the point where the corridors were nearly abandoned. Communication's less necessary role in the whole debacle was probably the only reason that there was ten or so people walking down the corridors, but still it seemed as though they were busy as well.

What was going on? Had something else gone wrong that the left overs at headquarters had to be shipped off to deal with?

What else could possibly be happening right now?

Tesla got her answer when she managed to make her way back to her room, and there was a file on her bed already waiting for her. This often happened whenever there was something she was allowed, due to her agent level, to know about. Apparently the Rio and Palladium poisoning issues where above her station to know when it started, so surely this file that was now in her possession meant that something else was going on and she was allowed to know about it.

Her hands gently picked up the manila file and opened it, a small holo tablet being the only thing inside. Tesla took the tablet out of the folder, wondering in the meantime if SHIELD was just feeling nostalgic when they delivered information like that, and started up the briefing on whatever was happening now, that she was allowed to know about.

The familiar glow of the tablet lighting up illuminated the teenager's face, shining right in her eyes rather painfully as she sat down on her bunk. At first there was the ever familiar symbol of SHIELD, the proud minimalist design of an eagle surrounded by the names of the divisions and the acronym of the security agency. The symbol was then replaced by the screen being filled by the sight of an office room, empty of any character so it was really just a desk with papers and a laptop.

And sitting behind that desk was a woman who seemed just as devoid of interest or individuality as the room around them. She wasn't very old, but still wasn't around Tesla or Romanoff's age, and was dressed as professional yet as uninteresting as possible. The teenager wondered for a moment if this was done purposely so that agents would focus more on the information being given to them than anything in the room that they saw.

The woman started talking, and Tesla found herself paying attention rather intensely.

 _Puente Antigo, a small town located in the New Mexico dessert, has been for some time, under the speculation of possibly being the sight of a possible Einstein Rosen Bridge._

 _The Einstein-Rosen bridge theory was resulted from a set of solutions to Einstein's relativity equations by Karl Schwarzschild. Using general relativity, the theory postulates curved-space structures that can connect two different regions of space-time. A wormhole to other planes of existence._

 _The astronomical anomaly is under the careful inspection and research of astrophysicists Doctor Erik Selvig, his colleague Doctor Jane Foster and colleague intern Darcy Lewis._

Files showed up in the corner of the screen, through which Tesla merely glanced at, the profile pictures of the forty something male and two younger women not taking the teenager's attention for long as the recorded voice of the woman continued on.

 _Last night, at 0100 hours, the previously thought theory was spotted not 30 miles from Puente Antigo, the results of which caused the impact of an 084._

Unknown object of unknown origin. Nasty stuff if the tales of Agent Garret were anything to go by. And considering that this lump of space debris caused what looked in the satellite photos attached to the recording to be a crater in the dessert, than this was certainly a big problem. One that no doubt Fury would not be pleased to add to his already growing list of issues.

 _For the moment the civilian life at Puente Antigo has remained stable and partially unaffected by the incident, and there are no reports as of yet of any civilian interference of the 084. The 084 is currently under high altitude watch, though it needs to be secured and analyzed on the ground before any transport comes to take the object of unknown origin to the Fridge._

 _Director Fury has ordered that what few agents are left that are not dealing with the incidents requiring to Miami and Rio de Janeiro, are to report to Collection point C with this tablet in hand at 0100 hours. There you will rendezvous with your mission superior and transported to the mission site._

 _Level 5 Mission Briefing complete._

Tesla could feel the excitement building in her as she stood up as fast as she could manage without falling back down again. For a time she just buzzed on the spot, already award that at the moment she wasn't needed to go anywhere and she had to wait until tomorrow morning. Still it was as though her exhaustion was flushed out for those few moments of excitement and a slight bit of adrenaline. Didn't last of course since not a second later she wobbled on her feet and fell back on her bedding.

Okay, maybe she needed to really rest up and drink more of that miserable colorless liquid that was meant to make her feel better.

Tesla took out her current bottle of Vita and slung it back just as she had planned, the burn at the very back of her throat still better than her whole mouth being on fire so the teen was somewhat satisfied with the results. She turned the holo screen back onto the civilian channels, thinking that the dull monotones tones of the adverts and drama soaps on a lower volume would help settle right into sleep.

For a time the teenager was left sitting up and watching that same droning entertainment that she hoped would soon send her directly into sleep. Once again the mystery of the capabilities of the vacuums were put into question and Tesla got to know whether or not Chelsea had Brad's baby or if it was Scott's…

God bless the monotonous shopping channel and soap operas on this occasion, as it had her out like a light.

* * *

The alarm that had been pre-set by SHIELD blared in her room, loud enough for the teenager to feel as though it was vibrating in her bones. Her eyes remained shut as she sat up, the movement being sensed by the state of the art alarm, which thankfully shut it off.

When she opened her eyes and memory returned to her sleep addled brain, excitement started t take the place of the tiredness and Tesla found herself standing up as fast as she could, the feeling of wanting to bounce around. But she managed to rein herself in enough from the excitement when she saw that the time was two hours before the collection time.

This was long enough to get ready and make it down to the Collection area, which was on the other side of the building.

The fact that she would have to avoid the large crowd of agent on her way there didn't occur to the teen as she was instead too happy to think about such things that could have brought her down.

There was only one duffle bag in her small room, and few clothes to pack it with, still it made the job easier as she cleared the closet into the bag and managed to fit a good few ten or so Vita bottles in the space that was left behind.

With this done she picked up the bag with every bit of strength she could muster, which wasn't much in consideration but still she managed to lift it so it wasn't dragging on the floor. And with all the enthusiasm that was adding to her adrenaline, she started to make her way to Collection Point C, which according to the rather helpful map on the tablet she held in her hand, was on the other side of headquarters.

Good thing she was starting to walk there now, she might just make it in time.

The teen grinned as she walked with as much of a spring in her step as she could manage, what with the kind of heavy lifting day she had been through the other day. She couldn't help but wonder what Coulson would think now, that she was actually going out on her first mission ever.

* * *

Okay, when she was wondering what Agent Coulson would be thinking of her showing up for her very first mission, confusion that quickly turned into sheer dread and shock when he saw the tablet in her hands, was probably not what she had expected.

"How did you get that?" thankfully he wasn't horrified enough to forget the fact that maybe the teenager didn't want him going off on her in front of other Agents, who were thankfully packed away into the cars that were already getting ready to go. He led the teen over to the side, far from the ear shot of those agents. Tesla bit her bottom lip as she was worried about why he would be surprised that she would get a summons as well.

Wasn't she an Agent too? Even if she hadn't completely finished her training, she knew several people in those cars that here just as qualified as her to be here, some even less so. It made it somewhat clearer just how desperate Fury was to keep everyone covered on everything that was currently going on. Since even the juniors and Level one's were being sent out everywhere.

"It was delivered to my room, just like it was for everyone else,"

Perhaps her S.O was hoping to hear that perhaps she found it or even stole it, since to him it would be so much better than the fact that some other superior wanted her to go outside the headquarters. He looked back to the transport cars for a moment, holding up the ever famous Coulson finger gesture of instant silent. This somehow got all of the transport cars to wait on his order without any more words necessary.

He turned back to the teen that now wanted to melt into the floor whilst also being terribly embarrassed and wished that she had never decided to come here in the first place.

"I need to contact some other agents, the transport cars will go on without us. Can you wait over there please," it wasn't hard for the teen to pick out that he was now using the serious Coulson voice as well, something she had never seen used on her, and had previously been relieved since she felt that that would never happen. And now that it was, she wanted gravity to suck her into the floor all the more.

With a red face that could match the color tone of a tomato, Tesla nodded once and went to shuffle off to the otherwise unoccupied corner of the Collection area whilst praying that there weren't as many eyes on her as she felt there was. She leaned against the wall next to the water cooler as she gently looked to the steel plating on the floor, trying to find any sort of rivets or marks on the otherwise smooth, shiny metal.

* * *

In the meantime, any other Agents that were nearby the superior whilst he was on the phone were quick to clear the area around him when seeing the thunderous expression he was wearing whilst his back was too his junior. It was apparent that Coulson had not expected Tesla to turn up, and was about to give quite the talking to, to whomever had the idea to sign her up for this.

However the Agent didn't seem to get the chance to give that scolding, since most of the communications and logistic Agents that he called seemed just as oblivious as he previously was in Tesla being signed up to this mission. Eventually Coulson gave in and called Agent Hill, hoping that she at least would have the smallest of ideas on what was going on.

"This is Agent Hill speaking," Ah, the informal greeting. That only ever happened when there was a rather strenuous mission or pressing paperwork, and considering the extra stress that Coulson could hear in her voice, it was definitely the horrifying hellish prison, that was SHIELD's Human Resources. Perhaps she was the one that unfortunately had the job of selecting what the public and government were and weren't allowed to know.

Hill always hated being tied up in bureaucracy and the endless lists of civil servants, and considering the now three separate issues that were going on, this must have felt much like very pit of Dante's Inferno.

"Hill, this is Coulson,"

There was something of a deep sigh on the other side of the telecommunication, a sign that Agent Hill already was aware of what Phil was calling about and not looking forward to the rest of what this conversation would entail. Then again, Coulson was very uncaring to this plight, since this conversation was very easy to avoid in the first place.

Mainly by not sending a mission brief and assignment enrollment to Tesla.

"There seems to have been a mistake in Communications, since my current student Agent has received a mission brief for the New Mexico Assignment. This seems puzzling to me since Fury himself had assured me not Forty Two hours ago that Agent Tesla was still going through the training sessions with Garret,"

"Agent Garret was sent off to Rio, and since your assignment has already been filled with Academy undergraduates and Level One's, Fury felt that it wouldn't hurt to send her along,"

"Well I have to beg to differ since the undergrads in those cars can't use their pinky finger as a defibrillator. It could hurt a lot, specifically a certain part of the population of Puente Antigo," His voice lowers quite a portion as he doesn't want Tesla to hear, but not enough that Hill can't hear the very stressed annoyance with the higher ups in SHIELD.

"We are running low on recruits and trying to maintain control in all of the assignments is getting harder to accomplish. Stark might be in a possible stable condition at the moment with the new element that saved his life, but lord knows how long that will last. Half of the Rio operatives have needed to be transported to Culver University to assist in the clean up, and now with this New Mexico situation… Fury has to play all the cards he has just to keep the Council off our backs for the moment,"

"What does this have to do with Tessa? Surely the situations can't be strained enough to send her out on the field," Coulson paused as he turned back to look at the young teen under his supervision, the young girl currently fiddling with the zip on her bag. The expression of barely hidden confusion and embarrassment being a good enough sign to Phil that she still hadn't managed to get through deception training. He shook his head to himself before turning back and focusing on the call again.

"She's just a kid Hill, barely even fourteen yet. She hasn't even been outside the Headquarters in seven years. She's just not ready,"

"Fury knows this, that's why he chose this mission. We certainly weren't going to send her out to Miami or Rio. This assignment was the most safe and secluded of them all. It's a simple examine and transport assignment, that means less danger to herself and others as a result,"

"Besides, I think Fury knew already that if she was going to go anywhere outside of HQ, then it couldn't be too far from your side."

For a moment Coulson said nothing, and instead stood and stewed over the information and the knowledge that he couldn't exactly refuse if Fury had ordered it. After all, time was ticking away in how long they would have to secure the 084 from the civilians of the New Mexico town. There was also the fact that despite how much he didn't like it, Fury's logic did make sense.

As long as she was by his side, he would know that Tesla was safe.

And the middle of the Mexico desert, while not the most ideal of places, when compared to the bustling cities of Rio and Miami, it was a perfect place for her to be.

Coulson always disliked how Fury managed to make him relent even though he wasn't there himself.

"Fine, but she's going to travel ahead of the transport to New Mexico with me. And if there is a violent situation, under no circumstances is she to fight in any way,"

"Understood. Have a nice drive Phil, Hill out,"

Hill hung up and got back to what Coulson assumed was one hell of a media tornado that needed to be settled. Still, the Agent couldn't help but be a little happy that at least she was being dragged through the ringer as well in the hell that had been the past few days. After putting away his communication unit and managing to coax his expression from thunderous back to smooth and calm, Coulson finally fully turned back to his student Agent.

She looked both hopeful and yet awaiting for the moment to be crushed, which only helped in making Coulson feel worse that he was against her first day out. She was obviously very excited at the thought of being outside, especially when it was for her very first mission.

"Ready for a car trip to New Mexico?"

She grinned wider than the older agent had thought possible and was practically bouncing on the spot as she followed him through the rest of the preparations. Her now enthusiastic outlook did brighten her S.O's somewhat to the idea of taking her with him, not that he would ever admit that to Agent Hill.

* * *

It was unfortunate that Lola was currently going through a few more upgrades, since Coulson knew that Tesla had been waiting forever to see the vintage corvette with her own eyes. Still, if this mission went well without any incidents, maybe the teen would be issued another mission that he was head of, and maybe then she could get the chance to see his other pride and joy.

For now a SHIELD issued civilian car would do for the trip, still it seemed that Tesla was impressed with the nice leather interior anyway.

The teen slid carefully into the back seat of the car, her bags already packed into the boot of the car. Coulson could already tell from how her seat belt done up nice and tight and how straight her back was, that she was a little impatient for the eventual exit from SHIELD Headquarters and out into the rest of the world.

Not wanting to make her wait for too long, especially since Coulson already felt that seven years was long enough a period to wait to see the sky again with her own eyes, the Agent did his best to get the rest of the pre-transport affairs in order, and checking them in triplicate just to be sure. Once everything seemed to be perfectly in order and ready, the Agent climbed into the driver seat of the car and got the engine humming.

As they started to pull out of the Collection Area and into the long tunnel that would eventually lead out into the secret multiple road exits out of the Headquarters, Coulson lowered the windows down just a few centimeters as he remembered the weather report he had received in the early morning and guessed that the teen would want to experience it.

They were in the underground tunnels for a few more minutes as Coulson navigated the turns necessary to take the exit he wanted, one that would led the car out into a usually mostly empty road and less of a chance of block up, since he wanted to get to New Mexico on time. However eventually both of the Agents could see the light at the end of the exit, and as they drove closer and closer, Tesla was practically on the edge of her seat as the tunnels disappeared behind them.

It was raining.

Of course it wasn't as if Tesla had never known what rain looked like, there were holo screens in her little plastic room for this reason, some semblance of contact with humanity and nature.

But a repeated image and sound to go with it, is truly only two small parts of the whole wonderful equation that is rainy weather.

Other senses of the human body were required for experience, and as Tesla sat in the back of that rental car, neck craned towards the barely a centimeter open window, she got to experience them.

Sound was of course already mentioned as the first two of any previous rain experience, but there is so much to be received from auditory sense fresh in the moment, that the SHIELD recording could do nothing but miss completely. It pixilated the sounds of falling, the millions of raindrops that would be otherwise completely unrecognizable joining together to create the cacophony as it fell to the ground or spattered haphazardly onto the window. It also made nothing but a slight bass rise, of what was in the experience of hearing the rumbling of clouds that seemed to be so much further above the teenager's head than what she knew to be fact.

It reminded her of Greek Mythology, and the belief that the rumbling of thunderstorms was Zeus anger stretching down from the heavens. Before now she hadn't thought much of it, possibly because she herself hadn't never really experienced it. And now that she had, it was easy to say that the sound of thunder crashing, caused a feeling that echoed deep into her bones.

Speaking the sensation of feeling, the difference between the sensations of inner feeling and outer does a ton of miracles muscle and sensation memory from an experience. For instance, the sensation of her thunder echoed bones and the force of the howling wind outside that managed to blast through the crack of the window and onto her face, it would stick with her memory in both sense of the muscle and sensation.

Feeling the wind against her face, a term of freedom, independence.

And in that moment of sitting in a government owned car being driven by what was essentially her handler to a secluded place, Tesla had never felt so free in her life.

"It's pretty bad weather out there," His comment is as brief and fleeting as it was meant to be, small talk and something to fill the silence. Still, the teenager can sense a bit of an apology in his tone, perhaps he had wanted it to be as sunny and free today as she felt on the inside when told she was leaving HQ.

"I think it's… nice," Her voice is as small as Coulson's comment was sparse, and she seems too far away from the conversation and instead too focused on the spectacle of the thunderstorm to think of better words. The older agent looks up briefly into the reflective mirror, but Tesla hasn't looked away from the rolling clouds above during the whole conversation.

They're trip starts to move out of the streets of the city and onto twisting highway roads, other cars there moving just as fast as their own, but more to escape the rain than to travel a great distance. The teenager looks as though she wanted to stay in that moment of appreciation, especially since it was now ending faster the further they drove.

Her hand holds up to the small opening in the window, for what exact reason she isn't sure, but still it seems to have purpose as she feels the raindrops hit the centre of her palm before pulling back.

The small specks of rainwater were sprinkled about her hand much like the stars on the clear sky up ahead. It was weird to feel the cold drops of water on her skin, especially since she was aware that this wasn't SHIELD processed or anything. It was just normal natural water, with all of the germs and chemicals to go with it.

Curiosity gets the better of her as she tastes the raindrop on her palm. There's not taste whatsoever, natural being that it is a single drop of water. It's a little disappointing in the grand scheme of the experience, but all the same the teen decides that overall this was too amazing to get hung up on one particular aspect.

The small opening of the window is shut again as they drive further and further away from the city and into highway territory, the level of rain lowering the further they go until it is eventually nothing more than a lightest of drizzles. For a few of those moments Tesla is silent, but the questions she has buzzing around in her brain about that experience don't like to be put on hold.

"What was that smell that was in the air?" The teen didn't know how to elaborate more on the particulars of the scent, being that she probably didn't understand the wording of 'heavy earth and soil yet with a tinge of the aftermath of a forest fire', being that she had never experienced either of those things for herself. Her Superior Officer acknowledges that he had heard the question, though of course he mulls over the answer for a time since he couldn't use the descriptive words above either.

Eventually he settles for the basic description, despite how much he knew she would not enjoy that. This was her first time out after all and she wanted to soak up this experience and all the small tid bits of information along with it.

"It's called Petrichor, the smell of dust after rain,"

Tesla wants to ask more, but knows all the same that if there was more that Coulson could tell her he would have already said it by now. In the meantime she labels the knowledge in her head that is already filling with the whole new sensory experiences, and a mental note to try and find out more about it, perhaps when the mission was over however.

More silence as the lights of the road grow further out, leaving large gaps of impenetrable darkness, meaning that so far the teen had been so focused on the rain that she had missed the chance to see other parts of nature until it was too dark to do so. Her eyes try to strain through the shadows at first before eventually giving up, her whole body now shuffled back to look in front of her.

It takes ten minutes more for this to become monotonous and Coulson could already tell as much just from a glance through the review mirror. Tesla was never very good with waiting for something without having some kind of mental stimulus in the meantime, even as a young child, but at the same time she was always too polite to ever mention it or ask for something to alleviate the impatient boredom. So either now she was going to sit there awkwardly for an hour in complete silence, before eventually falling asleep, or he was going to have to think of something to talk about.

The subject that Coulson eventually settled on was certainly unexpected.

"My mother use to say, that God was in the rain,"

Tesla had to pause after her S.O had spoken while she thought over this tidbit of information. This was one of the first times that Coulson had freely brought up one of his parents, any previous knowledge that Tesla had coming from when she was filled with a billion and one questions at nine years old.

The young agent noticed that perhaps she had paused for too long whilst pondering about Coulson's mother, and replied to this rather mysterious statement.

"I… I don't understand,"

"Neither did I when she told me, but I think it means that life's most difficult trials and bad situation, sometimes are necessary, because they have the greatest impact in shaping us into who we are," Coulson looked as though this statement was some kind of declaration of hope, however Tesla could only think that it sounded very worrisome and sad.

Still, she also tried to find some kind of optimistic outlook on this, despite the now hollow feeling about it as she worried now of bad things happening simply because they must.

"So… good or bad, everything has a purpose or reason for happening to make us who we are?" This sounded familiar to the Young Agent, and not a second later the pieces clicked and she added, "Oh! Like an Agent's defining moment right?"

Barton had mentioned that phrase in passing during her training, along with a more of a small definition on what it meant, rather than extrapolating further. Something that she now felt was happening at this time. However with this realization came yet another low feeling in her already somewhat hollow chest.

So… an Agents defining moment, was something that molded her into the kind of person she was going to be for the rest of her life… and it was going to happen, just because it had to. Destiny was a concept that before now, Tesla had not been familiar with, much less the negative side of it.

"Yeah, I guess so. Maybe you will find your defining moment soon," Whilst she knew that Coulson was trying to be optimistic with what he had said, Tesla couldn't help but hope that that was not the case. At least, not while she was out at New Mexico, on her very first mission ever. Coulson seemed to mistake her prolonged silence for lethargy, which she guessed he would have felt was because of the excitement of being outside the HQ for the first time.

"Why don't you get some sleep while you can? We'll be in Puente Antigo in the late morning tomorrow, long enough to catch some winks until then," Coulson's softer tone and advice seemed to be convincing enough for Tesla as she now felt somewhat drowsy, enough to take that nap in the back seat. The teen shifted a bit in her seat, trying to get in a comfortable position that wouldn't mess up her neck in the morning.

Eventually Tesla managed the impossible though and had had maneuvered herself so that she was both still buckled in and somewhat lying down in a way that didn't hurt her back or neck.

One deep breath and shutting her eyes later, and Tesla was asleep.

* * *

It felt like seconds since she had closed her eyes when she heard Coulson's voice again.

"Tessa?" The slight opening of blurry, sleep filled eyes was sign enough to her S.O that she was at least awake and her attention slowly growing. After a few seconds the teen raised her head a bit, her hair skewed in a way that only unconsciousness could manage, and managed to respond back.

"Hm…Yeah?"

"I'm stopping at a Gas Station now. Do you want vanilla or chocolate doughnuts?"

"Mmkay… No preference," Tesla partly mumbled in reply, before curling back into a ball. She heard a soft chuckle of amusement from her Superior Officer and the sounds of the car door opening and closing again, the final sound being the retreat of his footsteps.

Thinking that he would be gone for at least more than a little while, combined with the slight annoyance that was currently the seat belt pushing against her hip, Tesla unlatched herself from the safety strap, and lied down more comfortably on the back seats in her usual curled ball stance. And for a few seconds she felt completely content to fall asleep again.

It was only seconds later that the teenager felt the complete opposite.

It started with the sudden screech of tires, which was obviously another car pulling up to the gas station. Tesla at first, with her groggy still half awake thoughts decided that it was nothing to worry about, probably just someone who was in a hurry to get to wherever it was they were going, which resulted in less care for their tires.

However it was not more than a millisecond later, that Tesla heard someone running… towards the car.

She had enough time to squeeze in two thoughts, the first being:

 _Why would Coulson be running towards the car?_

The second was Romanoff's loud trainer voice in her ear, telling her to:

 _DUCK AND ROLL NOW TRAINEE._

A sudden spurring of adrenaline in her gut combined with her somewhat conscious and ridiculous thought that Romanoff was actually there and yelling at her, had Tesla doing just that. She rolled off of the backseat and ducked as far underneath it as her gangly limbs could allow, managing to only just be out of the sight of any of the windows.

For a few seconds Tesla laid in the smallest of curled balls that she could manage whilst under the backseat, the whole time wondering what was going on and why she was still under the seat anyway. But it was of course cut off by a loud, hair raising thud against her side of the car.

Tesla had to sink her teeth into her bottom lip in order to stop herself from yelping in reaction based fear as she curled into as tight of a ball as she could manage. However constant stream of adrenaline grew in her veins and curiosity had her looking just the slightest out of her hidey hole to the window just above her head, if only to have an answer to what the source of the thump was.

It didn't make a lot of sense to Tesla when she first saw it, possibly because she was still a little half asleep and the fact that her vision wasn't that much helped by the only light source being the gas station that was far away, thus making it blurry. Her eyebrows knitted in confusion as her brain first registered it as…

Well… a dark lump against the backseat window, only visible because it blocked some of the gas station's far away lights.

Although after blinking a few more times and allowing her eyes to focus to the poor lighting, Tesla felt a sudden chill of realization shoot right down her spine. The low temperature of the car suddenly seemed more notable than it was before now.

The strange lump was a person… leaning against the back window by their arms and looking into the car.

If Tesla had rolled under the sea a second later than she had, this person would have seen her.

Squeezing herself back out of sight, Telsa was left for a moment to where Coulson was, and what was taking him so long to come back and scare away her possible attacker.

Where was he?

The teenager only realized that her single attacker had become two when another voice started a conversation not centimeters above her head.

"Do you see anyone in there?"

"I thought saw something moving, probably nothing though. I'm going to the wrench for the window, see if there's any cash worth taking inside,"

Alarm had Tesla thinking faster, understanding that Coulson may not be getting her fast enough to help her, therefore she would have to help herself.

Her hands started moving fast around her small hiding place, softly patting down the car rug in hopes of finding something. Her thought process being that there had to be some kind of small yet deadly weapon under the seat, just in case. This was a SHIELD car after all, and Fury never liked to leave anything up to chance.

Tesla's hand brushed against a fairly suspicious lump in the side of the car door, which turned out to be a small weapon concealing pouch. Needless to say, the teen had never been so happy to be proven right.

Opening it revealed the smallest issue Night-Night Gun, and three small blue liquid filled bottle-like bullets, the ammo needed for the gun. There was also a switch back knife, but Tesla didn't feel comfortable at the thought of using it, and instead opted for the gun that at worst would knock these people out for a day at the longest.

Arming guns had not been completely covered yet in her training, so Tesla fumbled for a bit and tried to remember the anagram of instructions that Barton had told her when arming a gun. But then of course she had to remind herself that there was no actual safety on this gun and then she forgot whether or not the anagram was in the right order or not.

By the time Telsa felt like she had managed to arm the small unusual weapon, she can hear someone coming up to the car. They were walking this time, but by this point Tesla didn't bother thinking about it and instead readied herself up for some kind of confrontation.

The driver's side was opened, and before Tesla could think about it a bit more, she was already up and aiming straight on the newcomer.

"Tessa, stand down,"

Coulson.

The older Agent was halfway between sitting and standing from the driver's side of the car, hands that were filled with two different flavors of small doughnuts as he held them up in surrender by his head. After a stuttering sudden heart stop and lowering of the gun, Tesla started on the longest apology that the teenager could manage to spit out, her shaking bones and rather tired jaw (from clenching teeth together) making that apology difficult. The idea that she almost managed to shoot her Superior (even if it was with a Night-Night Gun) made her feel awful.

Knowing that the teenager was unlikely to be this frazzled and armed unless something had occurred, Coulson of course asked after it.

"What happened?"

Tesla related the entire event, which about filled up about five to ten minutes, though honestly they were the most adrenaline filled five to ten minutes that she had ever had so far. Enough for it to seem like an eternity in her mind.

She went into as much detail as she could. That being what she had seen and heard from the attempted attackers, when she had ducked under the back seat, where she had found the Night-Night Gun, how she managed to stay out of sight and finally why she had pulled a gun on him.

The last one was important since she knew already of SHIELD staunch rules and reprimands when it came to even pointing a gun at a Superior. And even though she knew that this wasn't really much of a mission, Tesla preferred to stick to that process so that she was use to it. Coulson made no complaint anyway, so she just continued until there was nothing left that she could remember.

By the time she was definitely done with her mini report, that wasn't really an official report, Coulson had already turned the key in the ignition and was pulling out of the Gas Station. He hadn't said anything as Tesla talked, wanting her to get everything out of her system until finally she was finished.

It only then occurred to the teen that she didn't know what had happened to the two strangers that had managed to have her so on edge. This led her to think about the possible correlation of Coulson walking up to the car with no difficulty or confrontation.

"What about you, what happened in the gas station?"

"Well…" Coulson divulged his side of the weird times at the gas station, though of course his was more action hero than hers. Telsa sounded more like a terrified teen in a slasher movie from her experience, while her S.O sounded like Bruce Lee with a bag of flour.

"So you defeated the thugs with your Coulson-fu?" Tesla couldn't hold back the smile, and judging from the angle of the review mirror, neither could Coulson.

"I would call it more trying and coming nowhere close to being Black Widow,"

Tesla wanted to roll her eyes at Coulson's comparison, but thankfully managed to hold back. To her, Coulson was definitely cooler than Romanoff.

"C'mon that sounded awesome, meanwhile I cowered under the car seats and nearly pulled a gun on my S.O. That's less awesome spy and more Horror movie victim," Tesla rubbed at the back of her neck whilst thinking over her fumbled attempt at defending herself from her attackers. Attackers that based on the description from Coulson, had a sawn off shotgun for their major weapon and no protection against B.O, much less an attack from an Agent.

"You did good Tessa. You hid from view and managed to arm yourself in case there was a confrontation. That doesn't sound like a slasher's easy target; in fact it sounds more like an Agent in training to me,"

Tesla's elation at her S.O's comment and positive feedback didn't get a chance to be voiced as Coulson continued.

"Also I don't think you've noticed, but it you didn't think to use electricity did you? The first thing that you thought to do was to grab a different weapon."

Tesla looked down at her gauntlet covered arms as the realization hit her that Coulson was right. The quick scramble to find the Night-Night gun would be seen by others as ineffectual since she already had something of an inbuilt weapon with her. However despite that… Tesla still felt that if she was placed in that situation again, she would still go for the Night-Night gun.

"I… no I didn't. I guess I just didn't want to seriously hurt anyone. The Night-Night gun was just a safer choice in the circumstances honestly,"

Coulson nodded along to her brief and somewhat rambling explanation before continuing on with the point he was trying to make.

"I'm not saying you should have Tesla, and I'm glad you read the situation enough with what time you had to decide correctly on your weapon. Still, I don't want you to think that there's absolutely no situation that you can use that ability. After all, you never know what problem you could get in, so don't ever forget what you're capable of when it comes to protecting yourself,"

Now it was Tesla's turn to nod softly to her S.O's words, taking a moment to mull them over, whilst also worrying about them at the same time. With the way that Coulson was telling her this, it seemed like he was expecting one of those certain situations to happen, possibly very soon even. Was he thinking that something is going to happen in New Mexico, or was he just being cautious?

Thinking about this culminated in the car going silent for a time. Coulson eventually got worried over the sudden period that the teen was eerily quiet.

"Tessa? Are you alright?"

"Hmm? Oh I'm fine," Well obviously she wasn't fine, but Coulson decided against asking after her still poor deception training on this occasion.

"Do you want to go back to sleep? There's still a little while until we get to the drop off point,"

Thinking about sleeping in the back seat again, or sleeping in general seemed like an incredibly unattractive idea now.

"No, I think I'd rather stay awake." Tesla's reply was definitely the truth from her, and thankfully instead of pushing the issue any further, Coulson only nodded his head in agreement and turned on the radio.

Soft bass and brass eased out of the speakers of the car.

Of course he would choose a Jazz station.

Tesla leaned back in her car seat, the beautiful symphony of her S.O's favorite music genera keeping her awake as they continued on towards the drop off destination.

 _Please remember, I still want you,_

 _And in case, you wonder why,_

 _Well just wake up, kiss the good life goodbye._

* * *

 **A/N: The song lyrics at the end is from 'The Good Life' By Tony Bennett (1963)**

 **Please review, constructive criticism always welcome.** _  
_


	10. Lachesis

**I am so sorry this took so long, but I have a two chapter update for you to make up for it! These both take place during the events of the first Thor movie.**

 **Enjoy!**

* * *

The next few hours of the night drive was spent with little spatters of conversation between the young agent and her S.O, mostly drowned out by the tones of jazz.

It was a nice moment, a decent distraction from the rather horrid rollercoaster that had been SHIELD HQ in the past few days, what with the disasters of the Stark birthday party and Culver University, along with the fact that as far as the teen was aware, Stark was now reported to possibly be on deaths door and Banner was no longer on the SHIELD radar at the moment.

Tesla figured that after all that, Coulson could use an easier time whilst checking out this 084 in the desert. After all, according to the reports, it was just something of some strange metal that needed to be watched over before transport came in to take it away.

How difficult could that be?

Before the young agent could reconsider how much of a bad idea it was to ask that question, Tesla felt the car suddenly slowing to the side of the road. Worried on whether or not there was something wrong with the engine, since they were supposed to be at the drop off point sometime within the next few hours, Telsa leaned slightly into the sight of the review mirror with her best questioning expression.

"There's something you need to see before we reach the drop point, besides we have to meet up with Agent Barton here as well," Coulson answered briefly before he exited the now parked car. Tesla sat there for a moment, many questions now forming after her S.O's reply, before she heard a brief tapping on the window next to her.

"Are you coming?"

Oh, so she was supposed to exit the car?

Tesla's hand gently touched the car handle, easing the pressure to open the door as she thought over the implications. She was going to actually be outside, for the first time in years. The thought had her swinging the door open a little faster than she expected, the sudden blast of air from the outside surprising her for a moment.

It wasn't exactly howling outside, but there was certainly a tad more wind than Tesla was use to in the confines of SHIELD HQ. The desert around them was eerily quiet, apart from the few generic tumble weeds that sped past them and off into the distance.

Tesla let one foot move out from the car and land onto the ground beyond it, her feet feeling the inconsistency of the sand through her shoe. A small thrill ran through the teenager at the feeling, and she quickly followed the one foot with the other and stood out of the vehicle.

The young agent's thought process was interrupted by the sudden flash of light. Turning quickly to face it, Telsa found herself looking at a rather sheepish Coulson with a camera in hand.

"First steps," He reasoned, tucking the camera back in his coat pocket before the teen could ask to see the photo.

"So what was it I needed to see so ba-" Tesla began to say as she survived the area, before trailing off as she looked up to the sky, her question already answered before she was done asking it.

The skies were no longer a complete inky black, but instead were now lightening into a mix of deep purple and far away peach tones. However it seemed with every passing second the peach and lighter pinks were beginning to take over the skies, chasing the last few vestiges of blackness away, with the purples becoming the shadowing under particularly large clouds.

And from the East of all this, the large golden disc began to rise, spreading slivers of orange and yellow across the sky, turning the pinks lighter and causing the purples to disappear.

Tesla had been sitting on the ground, watching this event for what felt like an eternity, as though she were always meant to be here to see this and nowhere else. In reality she had been sitting in the same spot for at least a good hour or so, though Coulson seemed to have no need to break her concentration from this moment.

He waited until the sun was at least a bit higher into the sky before bothering to say anything.

"I knew you'd like it,"

She said nothing, still enthralled in this event that was happening around her and the fact that she was seeing it with her own eyes for the first time. It seemed like nothing as going to break her concentration away from this, or at least that was the case for another few minutes.

The peaceful sunrise observing was interrupted by the arrival of another car, and a quick look at the license plate told both of the Agents that it was another SHIELD rented 'civilian' car. Though what was different from this one to the one that Coulson and Tesla had arrived in, was the dark purple paint job of the car.

As its occupants exited the car, Coulson could only raise an eyebrow at them whilst looking at the vehicle, the shade of its metal exterior in particular.

"Really, purple Barton? This is supposed to partly be a covert mission for the moment," Coulson said, half amused as the archer shrugged as he approached the two.

"People have cars in all different colors now, I could have gotten the Mystery Van model if I really wanted to be inconspicuous," He smirked and Coulson looked as though he was ready to age ten years in one day at the thought of it.

"Thank you for refraining from your impulses this time Agent," Coulson stressed on that last word as he turned back to watch the sky, Agent Barton joining them.

Tesla pouted to herself for a moment, and though she knew it wouldn't help the mission all that much, she still thought it would have been cool to solve this case with the Mystery Van. All they would have been missing was a dog.

"I missed the sunrise didn't I?" Barton said as he approached the youngest agent.

"Not really, I mean when does a sunrise… finish?" Tesla asked. The two agents paused, looked to each other for a moment before Coulson guessed an answer.

"…When the sky is blue?"

"Alright awesome I can still watch," Barton said as he sat a bit across from the teenager, and watched the spectacle of the sunrise for a bit longer. It was a peaceful moment again, one that Tesla felt she needed to hold onto for whatever reason.

But eventually it had to end as Coulson had to persuade the two Agents under his orders back into the vehicles.

"Where to now Boss?" Barton's voice crackled over the communication device once they were all back in the cars and buckled in.

"We're going to check out the area of the 084, and then go to the meeting point to rally the troops and close off the area from the locals. Then, some of the agents need to maintain a civilian cover for possible local Intel,"

"Does that mean-"

"Breakfast is on me Barton," Coulson replied with a deep sigh, one that gave the subtle fear that his bank account was going to be emptied a little more than necessary.

"Excellent, I haven't had waffles since Cairo,"

"Waffles?" Tesla's question caused a notable pause in the communication between the two vehicles.

"You don't… You haven't had Waffles have you?" Barton asked, and Tesla had to take a moment to wonder if it was socially unusual that she hadn't yet sampled the breakfast food, before deciding to be honest.

"…No…"

More silence followed by a sarcastic and dramatic sigh from Barton.

"Coulson please tell me you have spoiled this child in some way," His tone suggested that the archer was both expecting this outcome whilst also being sarcastically exasperated by it.

"She's had pancakes," Coulson defended, and Tesla could just imagine Barton raising his eyebrow in the other car.

"Let me guess, with strawberries and a fruit salad?" He was being sarcastic, Coulson wasn't.

"Of course," The older agent didn't look the slightest bit discouraged in his answer.

Barton's communication went somewhat quite, apart from another sigh and some mumbling that sounded like 'Helicopter Dad'. Tesla only smiled awkwardly and sat back a little deeper in her seat, wondering what waffles tasted like.

The drive was spent the rest of the time with Barton asking other different food stuffs that Tesla 'must have eaten' which after a negative response would be followed by 'my god Coulson how could she not have tried that yet?'. The younger agent didn't mind though, since it was entertaining to see her S.O getting overly defensive on how she hadn't eaten a jam donut before.

The amusing debate between the two vehicles had to come to an end as the cars slowed to a stop on a cliff face, overlooking a large desert field below.

Coulson released himself from the seat belt and before the teenager in the back seat could do the same, he turned to give her orders.

"Stay in the car for now Tessa, Barton and I are going to scope out the area,"

The young agent looked as though she wanted to argue, but instead let it go and nodded in agreement, slouching back again into the seat. As soon as her S.O was sure that she was going to listen to him, Coulson exited the car and joined the other SHIELD Agent on looking out over the area.

Tesla already knew the protocols for these situations, but that didn't mean she wasn't annoyed about being left out. After all, she had electricity at her fingertips, if anything she should be the one going ahead of Coulson and Barton to see if there was any danger.

But then again, Tesla guessed her recent poor health would be a defining factor in exactly why she couldn't do that anyway. Protocol or not.

With a small huff, Tesla turned back to the bag next to her, and with some apprehension, pulled out one of the Vita bottles.

Quickly popping the lid open and moving before her disgust could stop her, Telsa knocked the drink back much like she decided was the best way to take this horrid medicine, the acrid tasting liquid swishing down her throat as fast as possible.

When Coulson returned to the car, she was already half way through the bottle and felt like throwing up all her progress. The older agent had a look of sympathy for his trainee when her face twisted into disgust, since no amount of preparation and car could stop the Vita from touching her innocent taste buds.

"Maybe we should have waffles to," Tesla attempted a smile at Coulson's decision, but it was something of a difficulty since the acrid Vita taste was still in her mouth. Waffles sounded fantastic at that moment, the only worry on the teenager's mind being whether or not she could keep that breakfast food down.

As Coulson continued to buckle himself into his seat and start the car engine again, Tesla felt her curiosity rising for the chance to know if they actually saw anything out there. And certainly she didn't want to leave just yet without hearing or seeing something about it if they did.

"Did you find the 084?"

"We sure did, probably the easiest 084 mission I've ever been on. It was pretty hard not to miss," Barton's voice crackled from the communication device. This only peaked the younger agent's interest all the more as she turned back to her S.O with the best pleading puppy dog look that she could manage whilst still tasting horrid medicine on her tongue.

"Can I see it? Please?"

"We're on a schedule Tessa we still have to wait for the other Agents and set up the perimeter," The teenager pouted for a moment in defeat at her S.O's words, before hazarding a guess at another chance.

"Okay... after that?" Tesla leaned a little closer in her seat, and Coulson finally relented.

"Alright, it should be secured by then anyway so at least it'll be safe," the older agent relented as he fiddled with the knobs on the communication device that they had been using to contact Barton from his vehicle. For a few moments there was nothing but loud static, which dropped only when Coulson spoke into the receiver.

"084 has been spotted. Set up camp, do not detain civilian observes. Awaiting meet up," The older Agent's words were quick and to the point, more than enough for the person on the other side of the communication not to find it necessary t ask any more questions.

In fact all the other person had to say was a quick confirmation and then hang up on their side of the communication. Leaving both Coulson and Tesla to wait in silence for the eventual arrival of the other SHIELD agents that they had driven ahead of.

It didn't take long to notice that the rest of the 084 collection team was arriving however, since they were a little... Well, 'subtle' was not a good description for them. Especially since they had SHIELD slapped on every side of large black vans and haul trucks.

Coulson and Barton's car started up again in order to drive in front of the very large convoy of the SHIELD vehicles. Seeing the near one story high truck easing on the road so that it was mere millimeters from her window, had Tesla sinking a little in her seat in intimidation.

It didn't take very long to make near the location of the 084, though Tesla only knew that for sure when Coulson seemed to suddenly pull back from the road and off to the side, allowing the other large trucks and vans to go ahead of them.

At first the teenager wanted to ask why, but she got her answer before having the chance to say anything. As only seconds later, several non government or military vehicles were suddenly pulling out of the area and speeding away, back in the direction of Puente Antigo's town streets.

Intimidation alone worked well on the locals.

Once it was clear that the civilians were completely gone, Coulson put his car into gear gain as they drove forward to rejoin the group, stopping short on the edges of the meeting spot, the 084 still hidden from the sight of the rather curious teenager by the trucks.

But it didn't hide the large growing mob of Operations and Science division agents of SHIELD.

Both of the groups were easily distinguishable by the use of white lab coats on one side and leather jackets that obviously concealed Night-Night Guns and normal automatics on the other. There was no doubt that the Communications division was also there, but instead of standing outside, were actually sealed away in their vans, setting up the tech and surveillance needed for this mission.

Tesla cringed a little in her seat when managing to finally see exactly how many other SHIELD Agents were included on this mission, the sight of the crisp, clean white of the Science Division had her especially worried.

Operations was a very cut and dry division. It was the one that housed Barton and Romanoff, and no doubt the other agents in their field were just as blunt and straight to the point as her trainers. The teenager felt that she could trust those agents to be professional, and avoid her without any comment on exactly what measure of danger she was on the scale of gifted individuals in the SHIELD database.

The Science division however… Tesla had already gotten a sample of what the leaders in their field were like. FitzSimmons, assistant creators in the gauntlets that were currently keeping everyone within the vicinity of her person safe, were a little… less subtle than most Operations Agents had been.

Even though it had been a few months since her little incident of being lost in the HQ, the teen could still remember the way that the lab partners had stared at her when figuring out exactly who she was. She could still recall near perfectly the way that Fitz had carefully pulled his associate closer to him when he arrived, his eyesight never leaving the gauntlets for a millisecond, as if waiting for them to miraculously malfunction.

And then there was the way Simmons had frowned in the edges of her eyes, doing her best to hide what she obviously thought and felt.

Their reactions made Tesla feel… awkwardly dangerous and yet at the same time… pitied.

Tesla couldn't decide if that made her dislike the Science division for their terribly hidden emotions, or worried that every division thought of her that way, Operations included.

Something about possibly being both feared and pitied… didn't rest well in the teenager's stomach.

Coulson exited the car first, but before doing so once again gave his trainee the look that said she needed to remain where she was until he specifically said otherwise. On this occasion however the teenager felt no need to disagree or argue. Since a crowd that large and a growing anxiety that they might be secretly judging her, did not make Tesla feel in any way sociable.

So instead the youngest agent of the crowd watched through the window shield of the car as Coulson walked towards the crowd, Barton catching up with him seconds later and handing him a megaphone. The S.O then stepped up onto the bonnet of a nearby car, which with the assistance of the megaphone, managed to gain the attention of the large group of Agents.

Tesla watched her superior give his speech and orders on what was going to happen next, how they were supposed to go about the collection, and the order of near to nonexistent contact with the civilians of Puente Antigo.

With the orders sent out and understood, the divisions of SHIELD scattered to their areas of expertise, and yet they managed to work in a sort of harmony all the same. It didn't take long for the temporary headquarters and containment area of the 084 to be set up, which was mostly thanks to the use of tent like materials and a truck trailer that doubled as an office on the inside.

The young agent had watched this progress still from the back seat of Coulson's car, idly picking at her fingers as she waited for her S.O to return and tell her what to do next. Of course the first thing the teenager hoped he would say, was that it was cool to go look at the mysterious object now, since it had been plaguing her mind ever since she had received the mission outline in her room.

"Alright Tessa you can come out now," the S.O barely had the time to finish his sentence before his trainee was practically traipsing out of the car in order to see what it was that he wanted to do next. This did result in her getting her foot caught at some point and a rather embarrassing stumble at the end that looked a lot like nearly falling over. But at the end of it she was by her boss' side, a little rumpled if anything.

"So what are we doing?

"Well we have to go through the Safety Regulations and rules to follow while you're out of HQ,"

"…and after that?"

"Then we'll do some rounds of security simulations and maneuver plans,"

"…ok," Telsa scratched at the back of her head as she followed behind her Superior Officer as they walked around the new HQ compound, the large tent like structure now hiding the 084 from sight. By this point the young agent accepted her fate that this mission might be spent with her more indoors and out of sight than she had first hoped.

"But first we're getting waffles,"

Or not.

Tesla took the moment that her S.O's back was turned to punch the air in victory. She was about three quarters on her way to dancing about it when Coulson interrupted her.

"Professionalism Tessa, remember we're on a mission," The younger agent blushed to herself at her supervisor's words before straightening her back and climbing back into the car as Coulson buckled himself in.

* * *

The diner was the most wonderful place she'd ever been in.

Her past experiences with food outlets was mostly just the dining hall in SHIELD HQ, which was a drab and colorless place, the food being only a slight step up from that description. But this place, with its vibrant 50's red and white stripes on the chairs, the pictures of famous musicians on the walls and the juke box in the corner that blasted a song about having breakfast at Tiffany's or something.

It was colorful and alive, the people there also looked much happier than the usual SHIELD agent in the dining hall, who were always attempting to outdo each other on how fast someone could down a coffee shot without tasting it. Here also the food looked and tasted incredible, unlike the usual government issued food that the teenager was use to.

Coulson certainly seemed to enjoy the place, especially the pictures of vintage cars and strange little napkin dispensers that were in their booth in the shape of vintage jukeboxes. They ate in relatively comfortable silence, Tesla being too busy making sure to catalogue every notion of this experience in her mind, whilst also being blown away by the magic that was the waffles she was near inhaling. Eventually however her S.O cleared his throat in a way that the teenager knew meant that there was something he wanted to talk about.

"So, how has training with Garret been?"

"It's ok, he's as hard as Romanoff but not as… " Tesla struggled to think of a word that wasn't as harsh as the one she had in mind. After all, just because she didn't like the woman didn't mean that Coulson shared her view. Coulson obviously caught on to her struggle and stepped in with his own word.

"Cold? Romanoff is a little lacking on the social side. But she's the best in her field,"

"Trust me I know she is. To be honest though…" Tesla bit her lip again, unsure of speaking up about another agent that was obviously more elite than even Romanoff. Coulson however had caught wind of her apprehension and sought out the problem like a bloodhound on a scent.

"What is it?"

"I would rather train with her again than Garret. He was very…"

"Over-friendly?" Coulson's reply was more understanding than she was expecting, which in a way she was incredibly grateful for. Perhaps it was his small token of agreement that had the teen over sharing in what she thought of the older agent.

"He was getting too close. It was like he wasn't scared of being hurt like everyone else is," Tesla bit her lip after speaking, worried that she had perhaps divulged too much of what she was really thinking. Coulson raised an eyebrow at her words, his reply was something that she was expecting and was already ready to shoot down before he finished sounding it out.

"No one's scared you'll hurt them Tessa,"

"I see veteran agents push themselves against the opposite walls in the hall just to avoid me every day. I know they're scared of me, it's not like they don't have a good reason to be," Tesla said, her fork gently prodding at the mushy mess of what was left of her waffles. Her S.O looked as though he wanted to argue his point further, but the teen could tell there was a part of him that already knew this to be fact.

After all, it was the same part of his conscience that caused him to keep his hands on his side of the table.

There was another period of silence, this time ruined with the aftermath of their conversation. The awkwardness was broken a little by a somewhat relieved sounding S.O.

"I guess I shouldn't have to worry about any boys then?" His joke helps to lift the atmosphere a little, not that Tesla was in the mood to help him out with that task.

"No chance there, even if there were boys,"

"What makes you say that?" Tesla cringed a little as Coulson replied, knowing that once more the atmosphere was sinking back into awkward territory. She dropped the effort to move around the mushy waffles left overs, moving the plate itself to the side before she continued on.

"I'm just… not interested," It's not a very good excuse, and Coulson sees through it almost immediately.

"Tessa," His tone was pressed with the subtext of 'I know you're not telling me everything'. Tesla hated that tone a little bit, mostly because it had her spilling all of her thoughts out without pausing.

"I just don't think people like me are supposed to be with anyone," She paused and looked out the window of their booth, suddenly finding the random civilians outside more interesting as she continued, "I'm not exactly safe to be in a relationship with someone. It's better for me anyway if I don't get into things like that."

He gave her a look that said he wanted to debate this point, but at the same time the teen knew he was having a tough time coming up with an argument good enough to change her mind. He could disagree with her all he liked but it wouldn't change her mind. It was plainly obvious to Tesla that she was supposed to be alone.

There was an awkward fall into silent, in which Tesla could only blame herself for. After all her S.O had been attempting to lighten the mood with his questions, but she could only feel a little down at the subjects he was bringing up. The young agent looked up and for a moment decided on apologizing for her bleak outlook overall.

However Coulson beat her to it with another calm smile and suggestion that made things feel better.

"Let's get milkshakes before we get back to base ok?"

* * *

"You're cheating Barton," Tesla glared at the archer from across the table, arms crossed and an empty bottle of Vita clenched in her hand. The older man feigned a look of innocence at the teenager as he sat up straighter, his tone reflecting his light hearted sarcasm.

"How is this cheating?" Tesla glowered at the agent's response and countered it with a further accusation.

"Because Pawns can't escape after being captured. It's not in the rules," The youngest agent gestured towards the board that lay on the table between them, the pieces spread far and wide across the field of squares. Evidently this game had been going on for quite some time, partly from Tesla taking far too long to make a decision, and because Barton liked to say that he was going a little easy on her.

Or at least, easier than he went on anyone else in this particular game.

"Sometimes you gotta go around the rules to get what you want,"

"Ugh whatever, just hand me the 200, I passed go already," The teenager glowered as the paper money was handed into her small pile of monopoly money. The pile was smaller than the one on Barton's side, which again was only more evidence that the older agent wasn't going as easy on her as he would like to claim.

It was at this moment that Agent Sitwell entered the small Rec-room that the two agents were sitting in, and had the exact reaction a normal person would have when seeing the odd mutation of a board game that they were both playing.

"What… Never mind. Barton, you're needed for extra security night watch," Barton nodded with the bald Agent's orders, handing another few paper notes to Tesla's side of the table before walking out of the room to his place.

Tesla watched him leave before standing to approach Agent Sitwell. He wasn't someone that she had met before she left the pink room, so his personality was still something that she was attempting to get a read on.

"Do you need me for anything sir?" The teenager wasn't exactly sure what she could honestly be needed for, but it still felt right to ask just in case. Sitwell responded first by sending her a somewhat stagnant and emotionless look that had the younger agent falling completely silent.

"If you were needed Agent I would have said so. Remain in the Rec-Room for now," His tone was flat and quick, and he was gone seconds before Tesla could manage to create a reply back.

The teenager gave a look of frustration to the wall that Agent Sitwell was standing in front of only seconds before. Of course Tesla knew there was little that she could have helped out with anyway but surely anything was more productive than having her practically sitting at the kid's table and waiting for the adult supervision to come back.

It was as the teenager was going to sit back down and possibly wait for Barton to return and finish their mutated board game, when her eye caught sight of the centre of the temporary base. The 084 that had brought everyone out into the New Mexico desert was sitting in the centre of the loop of steel and plastic, keeping it safe and secure from civilians.

The object certainly was strange, but not impossible to describe. It was an oddly engraved hammer that was near molded hammer side down into the desert rock around it. But there was something else about it that piqued Tesla's interest, as no doubt it did the same to anyone else who saw it.

There was something the 084… gave off in a way, a feeling it emitted into the atmosphere that caused people to inspect it. It was an alien feeling and a lure that certainly no teenage mind could withstand.

Perhaps she could afford to just walk over to the rails near the object, just to have a good look at it. There was no harm in that surely? It wasn't that far from the Rec-Room she was in anyway and she could always just take the ten or so steps back into the room if she saw someone like Agent Sitwell coming from around the corner.

As soon as Tesla was sure that no one was coming around the corners, the teenager walked the ten or so steps to the rail and looked out into the centre where the hammer was sitting. She leaned against the rail and took up the relaxed stance of someone who was certainly not doing anything wrong.

It was as the young agent was taking part in the rather boring hobby of hammer watching that she felt a few raindrops on her scalp, and figured that it was going to rain soon.

Her next thought however was cut off by the sounds of sudden blaring alarms and Agents rushing about the once reasonably quiet base. Tesla had a moment of unthinking panic that wanted her to run straight back into the Rec-Room nearby in the hopes that she could stay out of trouble.

However, A few moments of deep breaths and actual thinking later, Tesla realized that this emergency protocol taking place was specifically for intruders.

She knew this, as Coulson had spent the past few hours after the diner drilling that into her head. Not stopping until the sun had actually set. Of course he also said that no matter what happened that she was to remain out of the situation unless ordered otherwise.

But if someone (or realistically, a group of people), were breaking into this base, that meant they were after the 084. And Tesla already knew that despite the awkwardness of her situation, she had the same orders as everyone else here when it came down to it.

Keep the 084 out of civilian hands.

Tesla looked back to the hammer, inspecting the rock matter that it had solidified straight itself to, and decided in the end that it was no doubt not going to move from where it was for now, and that the other agents needed her help more at that moment.

She was a little too late in her endeavor however, a fact she was aware of when one of the strongest Tactical Agents was flung right out of one of the entry ways, hitting their head against the railing.

The young agent pushed herself up against the plastic sheeting that was serving as temporary walls, just as the intruder stepped through into the inner corridors.

One of this intruder's main features that Tesla noted when seeing his back for the first time, was his long hair that reached below his shoulders. It could be described as a blonde shade, but at the same time there was a sense that there was real gold in those strands just from how bright and shining it was.

His build was something that perhaps other people would mention on with a slight drooling after effect, but Tesla was not un-use to seeing overly muscular men. And while he was certainly one of the bigger people she had ever seen, his hair however was a whole new sight altogether. It almost made her self-conscious of the mud shade strands of hair that had been freed from the loose ponytail.

The intruder must have sensed her hair-loving self in the room and turned to face her. And if the hair was anything to be jealous over his face was certainly a chiseled tribute to shut down her small ego.

Red flushed across her face as she stood up straighter and drew herself into a bigger stature that was meant to look ready to fight. Certainly she wanted to be the last person to dent such a face, but still her job was her job.

However the intruder didn't fight her, instead he just turned back and walked towards the 084. Tesla wanted to take personal offence to that, since he was seemingly totally fine beating the tactical agent into an unconscious pulp, but it was hard to when seeing his hair getting wet in the rain.

A voice crackled out of the communications device on the unconscious agent's belt, and Tesla recognized it as being Coulson's. The teen slowly sidled across the wall until she was standing near the body and picked up the device, knowing she wouldn't have long before it exploded in her hand from electric overload.

"Coulson, it's Agent Tesla, I'm standing on the ground floor do you want me to…" Tesla wasn't even sure what she could do in that moment, but once again it felt right to ask overall. It wasn't as if she was going to attack him after all, especially since the intruder was not interested in fighting her.

"Stand down Tesla, I want to see this," Coulson reply crackled through the device before it fizzed out completely and a small curl of smoke exited the device. Tesla placed the now broken device down on the floor, and noticed what her S.O was talking.

The intruder was standing in front of the hammer 084, looking down on it with such a strange array of emotions, certainly more than she'd ever seen the closed off agents around her portray before. There was pain, sadness and genuine regret that within seconds flickered across his face. It was apparent that this foreign object that had brought Tesla out into the desert, belonged to him.

He confirmed this point by grabbing the handle of the object, attempting to lift it out of the melted rock that it had become fused to. However it didn't take long for him to realize that he could not, and for whatever reason this only upset him even more to the point of crying out.

Tesla watched this happen as no doubt a few levels above her; her S.O was doing the same. Their reactions were no doubt different, as the young agent felt a wave of sympathy pressing against her chest. It was then that she was absolutely certain that she could not fight this person if she was ordered to.

Not that it mattered as seconds later it seemed the show was over, and agents crowded into the area and brought the broken hearted man down to handcuff him, not that he put up much of a fight anymore. The teenager watched this go on with a feeling of sickness in the pit of her stomach.

For the first time she wondered if SHIELD was incorrect in their decision to lock this guy up and keep him away from the hammer that was his.

She didn't get to reflect on this feeling for any longer as an obvious attention grabbing cough had her turning to face a very unimpressed looking Agent Sitwell and tired, wet Agent Barton.

"I thought you were ordered to stay in the Rec-Room?"

* * *

Tesla didn't stay in the Rec-Room, as instead she was far too busy pressing her ear against the interrogation room walls to listen to Coulson interrogating the intruder.

So far it seemed that only Coulson was doing the talking, the other man in the room remaining eerily silent. Tesla already knew her S.O would only be more annoyed by the lack of co-operation from the intruder to the point that he might end up in the Cube by the end of this.

Eventually Coulson left the room, not noticing his protégé flattening herself against the wall to remain unseen. Since he was now outside, she was sort of stuck where she was and left to keep listening into the interrogation room. And it might have been her, but she was sure she had heard somebody else speaking in the room.

"…What are you doing here?" Tesla strained her hearing to try and pick up whomever it was that could also be in the room for the intruder to speak too, but she heard nothing. For a moment she wondered if the man was speaking to himself, which wasn't a totally unreal possibility, but still it didn't feel right.

The one-sided conversation continued.

"What?" And then later on, "Can I come home?"

Tesla bit her lip and tried not to feel even sadder for this guy. It wasn't an easy task and she failed it almost immediately. She was going to lean her ear against the wall again when she saw not only Coulson returning but Agent Sitwell as well. Thinking quickly she got up from her place and walked counter clockwise from where they were.

She walked back through the main part of the base, sparing a look towards the hammer once again as she did so. Tesla stopped for a moment and looked again, blinking to clear what she supposed was dust or something in her eye. It might have been her imagination but she could have sworn she saw someone standing in front of the hammer, someone who wasn't a tactical or science agent.

And for whatever reason she thought it was someone dressed in a deep shade of green…

The teen shook her head from the ridiculous notion and continued on out, preferring to take the long way across the building so that she might not be caught by Barton, Coulson or Sitwell since they wanted her to remain out of the way. She wanted to obey those clear yet unspoken orders, yet still the young agent found that she could not.

There was something about that intruder that was different from everyone else here. Different like her, and that was worth investigating to Tesla.

As she rounded a corner into a clear glass hallway, one that let her see out into the uncovered grounds. Where she got the luck chance to see not only the intruder again, but note that he was leaving with another man that she had seen before.

This man was Dr. Erik Selvig as the pre-mission info had told her. It was easy for Tesla to conclude then that the mysterious intruder must be a friend of Dr. Selvig's, but that did not explain how he was able to just break the guy out of SHIELD's interrogation room so easily and with no fuss.

After all breaking into SHIELD was not something that a person got a slap on the wrist and nothing more for.

Tesla quickly ducked out of sight into yet another plastic sheet corridor and quickly made for another exit out of the main base building. She watched the two men drive out into the direction of the civilian town nearby, and could only wonder as to what they were up to.

Apparently she was not the only person who thought this as five minutes later a rather familiar purple civilian cover up SHIELD rental car drove out after them. But covertly of course.

Tesla watched this until the spectacle was nothing more than a speck in the distance, at which point the cold of the night seemed to finally reach her and she turned to go back inside. Only to turn and get a face full of annoyed Agent Sitwell.

"Why do always sneak up on me like that?" Tesla complained after the initial scare had left her system. The older agent said nothing at first, but pointed back into the base, waiting for her to comply.

"Why was Dr. Selvig picking up the intruder? Why did Coulson just let them leave?"

"That is none of your concern. You are not here because you're a real agent; you've barely even finished basic training. Coulson regards you with more sentiment than he should; perhaps that is why he lets you off the leach in a place like this. But that is ill advised and you of all people should know that by now. Now, do as your ordered and return to the Rec-Room," Sitwell's tone never shifted from its neutrality and for whatever reason that was the worst part of it all, that the insults didn't even matter to him.

Tesla didn't break eye contact as she walked back into the base, at least not until she had rounded a corner and returned back to where she was ordered. His harsh words did not stick to her mind however, as there was more important things for her to focus on.

After all, that man was different like her, and for whatever reason she felt the need to really meet him. And that need was far more important than anything that Sitwell could order her to do.

* * *

In the early morning there were a few agents out to inspect the area but it was not considered overly important. The night watch was more concern since intruders… like recently, could sneak in with the cover of the night.

The sun was barely rising but still there was light enough that an intruder around this tie could be definitely spotted before even entering the inner grounds, people exiting from the base on the other hand…

A small, heavily clothed person might have the chance of not being spotted amongst the jeeps and trucks if they knew the rounds of security watch, and could certainly have the added bonus of being unexpected. After all, nearly everyone was supposed to be in base by this time so no one was expected to leave.

And yet, a small heavily clothed person managed to do just that, as it took until the sun was a little higher and brighter in the sky before someone, namely Agent Sitwell, noticed that one of the younger agents was nowhere to be found.

By that time of course Agent Tesla was well out of the sights of the base and in the town of _Puente Antiguo_ , looking for a certain blonde mysterious man and his friend Dr. Selvig. Every once and a while pulling down on the hood of the jacket she managed to find on base before she left.

After all it was important that she kept her skin covered just in case she managed to bump into anybody, as well as having the added bonus of being concealed from other agents in the town. Of course it did look strange for someone to be wearing a hoodie in the middle of a New Mexico summer, but at the same time it was still a very sort of chilly early morning outside, so no one would be overly suspicious of it.

Tesla wandered here and there, her overall plan to find the mysterious intruder now seeming more and more ridiculous as time passed. This small town was a little bigger than she had previously thought, so her search might take longer than she would like to think.

At the same time however, it wasn't as if she could call this little plan of her's off and just return to the base like nothing happened. She was going to be in massive trouble regardless of if she stayed or left, so it was probably no more skin off her nose if she stayed and strayed across the streets of _Puente Antiguo._

Luck seemed to gleam in her direction for once as she looked up to the building at the end of the main street that might have been a radio station once, and saw the exact man that she had been looking for.

He was watching the sunrise, much like she had done on her first real morning outside of containment. Whether it was intentional or not, Tesla felt even more of a strange connection with this man in their odd differences from everyone else.

She hurried up to the radio building, whilst still trying to remain unimportant as she did so, and knocked carefully on the glass door of the building. It took a few minutes but thankfully she was still in luck that scientists rarely passed up a quiet morning to work, as finally someone came to open the door for her.

Tesla recognized her as Jane Foster, the woman that had been researching the strange lights in the sky, the name of which was hard to remember at that moment. Still, that wasn't a major importance on the teenager's mind as she greeted the scientist.

"Hi, I'm sorry to bother you so early in the morning but I'm here to see the man that's standing on your roof? There are a few things I want to ask him,"

* * *

 **Please review, constructive criticism always welcome.**


	11. Atropos

**Part 2 of my two chapter upload to make up for taking so long to update. Again this takes place during the first Thor movie.**

 **Enjoy!**

* * *

"Who are you?"

"Oh sorry, I didn't mean to be rude," Tesla buried a hand into her hoodie pocket and produced the ID that she had managed to sneak out of the base when no one was looking, a small badge that had no name on it and was basically only supposed to be used for the science department when they brought in non-SHIELD experts. They had given Tesla one because she didn't have a real metal one just yet.

She didn't expect the rather interesting reaction she got from producing the item to Miss Foster.

"Okay please leave, I'm not looking to get into anymore trouble with SHIELD. You should return what you stole to them before they take everything from you," Miss Foster made a move to close the glass door in the teenager's face, but Tesla quickly jammed her door in the gap, and tried not to express pain.

"No, please I really am with SHIELD," This turned out to be somewhat even worse than stealing from SHIELD as Miss Foster's face said. It was only then that Tesla remembered that SHIELD had only just taken all their important equipment just yesterday. No doubt she would now certainly not be sympathetic to the teenager.

"Then I really do not want you here, please leave,"

"I just need to talk to him Miss Foster that's all I want to do."

"How do you know my name?" Again a wrong action, Tesla bit her tongue for a moment and cursed her lack of tact. Of course she would be even more suspicious of her now.

"Please don't make this complicated just let me in,"

"No, now go before I call the police," Now that was a step that could seriously get not just her but a few other agents in trouble, so the teenager relented.

Tesla removed her foot that had doubled as a door stop and the door slammed shut. Miss Foster turned back to what she had been doing before Tesla had appeared and was seemingly ignoring her now. This wasn't good as the young agent had no doubt that whichever agent was watching this take place no doubt found this exchange worth reporting about.

She needed to get inside the building, at least thee she had a lesser chance of being picked up by other agents and brought back to a rather pissed off Agent Sitwell. Tesla moved to make it as though she had given up and walked down the footpath away from the building. When she was sure that Miss Foster was no longer watching out of the corner of her eye, the teen carefully snuck to the back of the building and stood by the back door.

She had to think of a way to get Miss Foster to let her into the building… but what could work?

Tesla fiddled with her hands for a few moments before the obvious answer occurred to her. After all the best way to attract the attention and interest of a scientist is show them something unexplainable right?

Tesla took a deep breath and knocked on the back door, and once again it didn't take long for Miss Foster to reappear, this time with a rather annoyed look and phone that no doubt was already dialed out to the police in hand.

"I told you to-"

Tesla held out her hands and showed her something inexplicable.

"Please let me in, I just want to talk,"

Miss Foster hung up the phone.

* * *

"Darcy! Get the tape recorder!" Miss Foster shook awake another woman that was asleep on a lawn chair nearby, the dark haired smaller of the two blinking irritably up at her boss before nodding and shuffling off.

"I'm sorry I can't answer questions on the record. In fact I'm not actually supposed to be here… or show you what I did," Tesla spoke up and started to realize that perhaps she had managed to make another, yet bigger mistake than her last few. Miss Foster did seem disappointed for a few seconds before shrugging it off and telling her assistant to never mind about the tape recorder.

"Could you at least tell me how you managed to do that? Off the record I mean," Miss Foster sat back down at the table and gestured for the teenager to take the seat across from her's. Tesla complied and decided there was no harm in off the record talking. After all, there was very little chance that anyone outside of this situation would believe her about a electric spewing child that she found in the middle of New Mexico.

"Okay, umm, where is your other colleague?" As soon as Tesla mentioned Dr. Selvig Miss Foster was off to find him and tell him about the strange person that was sitting in their kitchen at that exact moment. Tesla quietly sat in the now silent room and waited for Miss Foster to return, in the meantime the still tired Miss Darcy sat in another chair and faced the young agent.

"Hey, I'm Darcy, I'm Jane's assistant,"

"I'm Agent Tesla, I shoot electricity out of my hands," It just seemed like the right and easiest thing to say, yet for a moment the teenager worried that Darcy would have an overreaction on a different level than Miss Foster had.

However the reaction was instead on the other end of the scale.

"Cool, are you here for the musclely guy?" Darcy sipped from her cup of coffee, and Tesla guessed that what she had said hadn't really settled into the assistant's mind just yet. So the teen decided to just keep up the conversation in the meantime as she waited for Jane to return.

"Yes, I saw him last night. We might have something in common so I wanted to talk to him," Tesla looked down at the cup of coffee that Miss Darcy had placed in front of her. She'd never had coffee before, so she was a little unsure of it and wanted to wait until it had cooled down before trying it out.

"He's good looking am I right?" Miss Darcy smiled through the cup that was in her mouth and Tesla smiled back as she looked away again.

"His hair is nice," Tesla admitted and blushed a little at the memory of it.

"Maybe it's Maybelline," The teenager snickered at the assistants joke, which relaxed the atmosphere so that Tesla felt a little more comfortable in her surroundings. A patch of what she thought was nice silence passed between them before Miss Darcy placed down her cup and looked back at the teenager sitting across from her.

"Sorry, you shoot electricity out of what?"

"Out of her hands apparently" Dr Selvig replied as he entered the kitchen, a hand pressed against his forehead and a vitamin pill in the other hand. He walked over to the tap, filled it with water and popped the pill to fizz up inside. It wasn't until he also was sitting at the table that Tesla noticed that she was sort of surrounded at all sides.

"Okay, where should I start?"

"You could tell us your name before showing us any fancy flashes," Selvig drank from the cup with the now fizzed liquid and watched Tesla carefully.

"I-I'm sorry I didn't mean to be rude," Tesla worried over her once again lack of tact in not introducing herself properly, the older man's glower making her slightly panic that she was going to be asked to leave despite how much work she did to get here.

"Don't be intimidated, he just has a hangover," Darcy smiled at Tesla, evidently to calm the teenager's nerves and possibly to act as something of a good cop in this weird interrogation.

"My name's Agent Tesla, I am with SHIELD," Dr. Selvig looked as though he was going to say something but the teen quickly interceded with a further comment, "But I'm not here to take any of your research I promise. In fact SHIELD probably doesn't like the fact that I'm here right now,"

Those words seemed to pacify Dr. Selvig into something of a smug acceptance; evidently this was another person in the research team that was unhappy with the actions of the organization that Tesla worked for. She continued on regardless, deciding to get the next bit of information off of her chest while she was at it.

"I was supposed to stay out of the way for everyone else's safety. Just sit tight and not do anything… but I couldn't do that. I saw your friend last night when he tried to take back the 0… the hammer,"

"Myeuh-muh," Darcy said with a smile and Tesla decided not to waste time on asking what exactly she was talking about before she went to continue on with her explanation, but was interrupted.

"I remember,"

Tesla nearly leapt out of her seat when she saw the mysterious man had entered the room when she wasn't looking. His three friends seemed equally surprised by his entrance, but no doubt they were a little more use to it than the teenager was.

She stumbled over what to say for a second, before deciding to fall back on an apology for what happened last night.

"I'm sorry-"

"Do not worry I am not angry with you or your people. I only wanted back what I thought was mine, however it turned out I am now unworthy of that power. It is safe where it lies for now,"

"I'm not here about your Hammer. I wanted to talk to you,"

"Why?"

"I saw you take down agents that I've never even seen break a sweat before. You're different from everyone else, and I am too. I've never met other people like me so… I don't know I just wanted to talk…" Tesla rubbed the back of her neck and seemed to only shrink more into her awkward self-conscious state.

"How are you different from anyone else? You seem to look just like the people of this Earth," The man said, and waited for her reply. He was very direct, even more so than the three researchers had been and it left Tesla stumbling a little for a few seconds. Before finally she decided not to both explaining it in words when she could just show him like she had Miss Foster.

Tesla pressed her thumb against the print pad of the gauntlet, just as she had done before knocking on the back door an hour earlier, and watched the green lights on both gauntlets and the unseen neck brace turn red.

Her hand held up she felt the electricity bubble up as before, and sputter this way and that in her hand as she held it as nonchalantly as one would an object or water. The two researchers and mysterious man who had not yet seen this little act looked on in amazement.

"Impossible," Selvig said as he stepped a bit closer to inspect it, Tesla allowed that since it was still a bit away from where she was standing.

"Awesome," Was Darcy's reaction, as she took another sip of her coffee and remained seated.

"Different," Tesla replied as she waited for what the mysterious man was going to say. There was a dip in the conversation as Tesla turned the gauntlets back on again, containing back the electricity. She sniffed a bit after it was done; still not use to the after effect that came with switching the device back on, almost like a little breath had been taken out of her.

"What do you wish to talk about Tesla of SHIELD?" The man went to walk back to the roof of the building and gestured for the teenager to follow him, she did so, but stopped just before reaching the first step to ask her first question.

"Sorry I forgot to ask…What's your name?"

"Thor Odinson,"

"You're Thor?" She sounded a little surprised, and that was certainly because she was. The man seemed so honest and not at all bothered by what he had said that she doubted he was lying.

"Well it hurts," Darcy remarked, and Tesla was brought back to earth enough to snicker again.

* * *

The conversation between Thor and Tesla on the roof took quite some time, as they traded their stories to each other and answered each other's questions. It was very liberating in a way for Tesla to tell someone else about her life in SHIELD, especially someone who was somewhat on the same level of weird existence as herself. Thor's story however, was much more interesting to her than her own, especially since it had her having to believe that there was something like other universes and worlds apart from her own.

"So you're not from Earth like me or Miss Foster, you're from…"

"Asgard," Thor finished the rest of the teen's sentence and left her in a bit of a momentary lapse of crisis. Technically she was really speaking to an alien at the moment if what he said was true, and Tesla didn't really have a reason to suppose that it wasn't. After all the lightening sky thing that Miss Foster was researching was apparently to be believed to be something like a wormhole, so it wasn't impossible to think that something or someone could come through.

"Oh…. It is nice there?"

"It is a peaceful world, in which we watch and care after the other worlds under our charge,"

"So… is that why you're on Earth? Is there something that you need to protect us from?" Tesla asked with a bit of apprehension, since the thought of the kind of trouble that would need someone like his help didn't sound good at all.

"Nothing plagues Midgard but my own stupidity," Tesla supposed that by Midgard Thor meant Earth, so she just shook that off and instead decided to ask after the latter part of his reply.

"What do you mean? Is that why you couldn't lift the hammer last night?" Thor nodded in confirmation to Tesla's question before continuing on.

"Mjolnir can only be lifted by those who are worthy. In my haste to make war in what was peaceful times, I lost that right and have been cast out from Asgard forever," Thor looked shame faced and Tesla decided not to pick at fresh wounds of exactly what he did wrong to be forbidden from his home.

"Surely your father can't be mad at you forever for what you did; he would forgive you eventually,"

"My father has died, I can never be forgiven nor return home to right what I did wrong,"

"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to…"

"It is alright, no one is at fault but myself. Dwelling on the matter will not help me either, I have received my punishment and must deal with it the best I can. Perhaps a life on Midgard would not be so terrible,"

"I don't think you'll get to live the wild and free life of Earth for very long," Tesla said before she could stop herself, which piques Thor's attention.

"What makes you say that?"

"Well… whether or not you have a… quarrel with SHIELD it won't matter. They're not in the habit of letting people like you or me go off into the world without some extreme supervision,"

"Like they did with you and this… pink room that you spoke of?"

"Maybe, I mean I got to be an Agent so I get a little more freedom than most, although that might go away soon since I broke the rules and ran off to find you…" Tesla let her words trail off as she considered the real trouble that she was in now.

"I'm sure your father would understand your need to meet someone like yourself,"

"Father?" Tesla blinked and looked to the Asgardian in confusion.

"The Son of Coul that you spoke of,"

"Oh no, he's not my father, he's just…" Tesla thought about it for a moment before realizing that perhaps she had let that sentence drop for far too long.

"I see," Thor replied with a knowing smile and Tesla decided to leave it there. In the dip of conversation again Tesla's stomach, unhappy with the lack of sustenance, growled for something more edible. The young agent blushed at the loud sound, while Thor only took that as an end to the conversation.

"I believe Jane and Selvig have made food for the morning feast," Thor stated as he stood from his chair, Tesla following suit at the mention of food.

"We call it breakfast," Tesla mentioned before she took another sip from the horrid tasting Vita bottle.

"Interesting," Was the reply as they walked down the steps and back into the kitchen.

* * *

Miss Foster and Dr. Selvig only had more questions for Tesla about her ability when she and Thor walked into the kitchen. The teenager answered them to the best of her ability, which was hard when there was a few of them that she had never considered before.

"So when you make contact with water, there isn't a reaction?"

"No not really… I guess it depends on the water though,"

"Can you shoot it out of your feet?"

"…" There really wasn't an answer for that one, and the others decided to just let it be.

Apart from the questioning Tesla felt rather comfortable around the scientists and Thor, perhaps more than someone who hadn't really made outside contact with the world before would. The morning went also went in what be considered peaceful, or as peaceful as a morning could be with what was apparently an alien god and teenage girl who could shoot electricity out of her fingers.

Breakfast was good; in fact it was somewhat even better than the food she had gotten from the diner the day before. Apparently there was a difference between home cooked and restaurant that the teenager had not known about before.

"Do you trust SHIELD?" Not a question that Tesla was expecting whilst she and Thor were doing the dishes, (the god doing the washing up while she dried, touching water now became something to worry about). It was Selvig who asked, which wasn't the unexpected part of the moment, but more it was her own answer that stunned even herself.

"I… don't know. I want to," It came out before she could really reflect on it and decide that yes, she really was unsure of her trust in the organization she had known for what she remembered to be her whole life.

"Why are you unsure?" Thor asked as he placed another plate into the bubbly water as Jane had shown him before, this time careful not to almost shatter the porcelain in his tight grip.

"I think… there is a few things I've asked about, and their answers don't make sense to me. I don't expect to be told everything all the time but… I've been getting kind of sick lately, and whenever I ask about it… I feel like there's something they don't tell me," Tesla answered as she dried off a cup and handed it to Darcy, since the teen was no longer allowed to put the glass and porcelain away either. The teenager had given no thought that perhaps she was over-sharing on what she thought about SHIELD, not that it would matter much anyway since this wasn't exactly need-to-know only intel.

"Maybe you need to confront them on it then," The assistant answered easily as the cup and another plate were put away into the cupboards, "After all, it's your health and if it really bothers you then they need to tell you about it,"

"Yeah…" The conversation ended there, as they could tell that Tesla was now unsure of her position and that they had placed her in a spot that needed much more reflection that just one conversation could allow for. Miss Foster and Dr. Selvig then talked together away from the kitchen, no doubt about Thor or something to do with this whole crazy situation.

A few moments later there was a knocking on the glass door, and when Tesla looked up she saw four of the strangest dressed people she had ever seen in her life.

Three men and a woman wearing what could best be described as very articulate armor that was definitely alien all around. They waved excitedly at Thor, and that was when Tesla realized that they must be friends of his from Asgard.

Meaning that he was actually telling the truth about those other realms and the fact that he was kind of an alien. The others seemed to realize this at the same time, since the glass and mugs that were once in their hands had now shattered on the ground.

"Oh," Was all Tesla could manage to say in the aftermath of the realization, as Thor went and happily greeted his friends.

"We are the Lady Sif and the warriors three," The rounder man of the group said in greeting to the three researchers and Tesla, who was still standing there and muttering 'oh' under her breath. It was a bit of a side effect when your existence gains a new perspective.

"My friends, these are the Jane daughter of Foster, Darcy daughter of Lewis and Erik son of Selvig. They are like philosophers of Midgard, they were researching the Bifrost in their world, when they found me. And this," Thor stood next to Tesla and gestured back towards his friends, "Is Tesla, daughter of Coulson and she has abilities unlike others of Midgard,"

"Well I'm not the only one… I mean… um…Hello," Tesla gave up and waved at the four newcomers.

"She shoots lightening out of her hands," Darcy said in a still somewhat shell shocked voice. Miss Foster and Selvig nodded in agreement with what the assistant said, finding it perhaps the only thing they could do for the moment.

"Truly Midgard is a strange realm," Another of Thor's friends, who was somehow even more well dressed and handsome than Thor, again making the teenager a little unsure of her own somewhat lumpy and messy appearance.

"My friends, I have never been happier to see anyone, but you should not have come," Thor did not lose his smile while he spoke, but it gained the same sense of regret that Telsa had seen on the roof earlier that morning. His friends noted the sudden drop in mood as well.

"We're here to bring you home, to Asgard," The handsome one said with confusion in his tone.

"But you know I cannot go home, my father is dead because of me. I must remain in exile,"

"Thor, your father still lives," The Lady Sif debunked Thor's words, and it was apparent that the fact his father was still alive was news to Thor. News that while he appreciated, did obviously confuse him, which was understandable since he was under the assumption that the death was his fault.

"Loki has lied to me then. He came to me at my lowest moment and dragged me down even lower, over a lie," Thor said, his words confused and hurt at the thought that this could be true, however it didn't take too long to accept it.

"Who is Loki?" Darcy whispered to Selvig as she and Miss Foster managed to regain some composure and accept their situation.

"His trickster brother… it's in the book," Selvig replied.

"No doubt your Midgardian books speak the truth, Loki is no better than a lowly trickster, playing with lives and emotions that he spares little thought about," Thor said, his fists clenched in anger as he turned away from the group, though the glass reflected that his expression was saddened at the thought that his brother would lie to him in such a cruel way.

Tesla stepped uneasily forward and offered some words of advice, not that she had much confidence in what she said. Still, it was better than doing nothing.

"You need to go back to Asgard then. If your father isn't dead then why would Loki lie about it, unless there was something else he was planning to do,"

"The Lady Tesla has wisdom in her words Thor, Loki is up to something. He has taken complete control of Asgard and no doubt has more nefarious plans on the way," The Lady Sif placed a hand on Thor's shoulder, her words already trying to convince the Asgardian to do what was right.

"But I am still in exile, even if I wished to return to Asgard I doubt that I could take on my brother as I could before. All of my power has been sealed inside Mjolnir, left for those that are truly worthy," Thor ended the discussion with quite the conundrum, but it was one that the group did not get much time to think over as something else happened.

The sky was beginning to suspiciously darken a good miles away from where they were standing. But it wasn't hard to notice as soon it took the attention of the entire group and they approached the doorway to see what was going on. Tesla could already see the few black cars around the area of the clouds that told of SHIELD's appearance there, and hoped that a certain S.O of her's wasn't in too much danger.

"Are we expecting anyone else?" Darcy asked, but already it was obvious that the answer was not going to be good.

"Loki must have noticed our escape to Midgard and sent someone after us," One of Thor's friends said as he laid a careful hand against one of his swords, ready like his friends to fight whatever it was that the trickster brother had sent after them.

Tesla took a deep breath and pressed her thumb against the print pad on her gauntlet, feeling the green light once more go into a shade of dangerous red. If something had come through that was willing to attack Thor and his friends, then it would not be above harming a few innocent civilians on its way. It was no doubt in the teenager's mind that she was needed to help take it down.

That fact was only solidified when one of the SHIELD cars went up in flames.

"Loki sent the destroyer," Thor muttered as he and his fiends exited the building and were already making their way towards whatever the 'destroyer' was. Tesla hurried after them and clenched her fists so tightly that she could feel her fingernails biting into her palms.

For whatever reasons she felt rather shaky and her stomach was flipping. The young agent guessed the reason was on the nerves of being in her first fight. Something that wasn't helped at the thought of it being against something called a 'destroyer', but still she needed to maintain composure and keep the people around her in her sight so no one got hurt.

She wanted to be good enough to be an Avenger, and now was a great time to prove it.

A plan was quickly made for Thor, Jane, Selvig and Darcy to get the civilians out of danger, and it was just as Tesla was going to ask what they wanted her to do when Lady Sif raised her voice to the teen.

"Will you fight with us Tesla, Lady of Lightning?" Her words were nearly lost to the teenager when seeing what was coming towards them. A being much like one of Stark's suits, but it was easy to see from the fire that spewed out of its head that there was no pilot inside. Tesla looked back to the Asgardian woman and nodded.

"Just Tesla, and absolutely," The teen responded, but her words were also nearly drowned out when the destroyer's flames hit the gas station, causing a massive explosion. People were screaming and running all directions, but it wasn't even a minute later when the main street of _Puente Antiguo_ was empty apart from the four Asgardian warriors and Tesla.

"Keep it busy," Lady Sif told the other three as she ran off to the side to climb up on of the buildings. Her request was easier said than done of course, well for Tesla anyway as the other three merely yelled in a battle cry and rushed towards the metal goliath.

The heaviest of the three was thrown at the destroyer, and bounced of it as though he was made of nothing but rubber. Tesla watched this and saw that the machine was about to, as its name entailed, destroy him for his efforts as he laid winded on the dented hood of a car.

The teen ran forward and attacked, the feeling of the bolts of electricity leaving her hand to hit the monster being comparable to hitting with her own fists. The action seemed futile as it damaged the monster in no kind of way, but it certainly did take the attention away from the Asgardian it was just planning to destroy.

Tesla was hunched over after her attempt, feeling more winded than perhaps the Asgardian did after being thrown around. Her heart was pounding in her ears and she couldn't understand why it had suddenly become so hard to stand up straight, her knees and calves begging to lay down.

She was already exhausted by her efforts, but still tried to shoot another bolt at the monster. She straightened her arm and readied herself just as she had done before, and waiting for the electricity to come.

Only it didn't.

The horror of her situation slowly dawned on her as she looked up at the destroyer, who's face plates were falling back to reveal the fiery inferno inside that would roast her very flesh. She pleaded in her mind to shoot just one more bolt, one more spark of her light, just to save her life.

But no electricity came.

Instead her savior was found in the Lady Sif, who jumped off of the roof of the nearby building, spear in hand that went straight through the destroyer as she landed on its back. Tesla breathed a sigh of relief for the half a second where it seemed that everything was going to be ok.

But of course it wasn't long before everything changed out of their favor, as the entire body of the Destroyer turned itself to now face the female warrior, its face once again opening to engulf her in flames. It missed, but managed to throw her off itself and land painfully onto the asphalt and cement.

"Fall back!" The Lady Sif ignored her pain and yelled her order as she and the other three Asgardians ran back to the end of the main street, Tesla following close behind as she could feel the heat of the monster's blast at her heels. It didn't take long for another few blasts to hit a few nearby shops, the explosions spreading glass everywhere and cutting the young agent a few places in her face as she ran.

A few cars were also hit, causing Lady Sif to be flung off balance and on the ground, a blast again not long after that knocking away her friends who went to assist her.

Tesla turned back and clenched her fists again, feeling the stinging pain of the cuts on her face over her new exhaustion as she attempted to summon all of her strength in just one shot, just one more.

She felt sparks building in her palms, and fired before they could die out.

The bolt was stronger and faster than the last, hitting the destroyer and causing it to stumble back, but she did not stop the attack until it was down on its back. Tesla did not know that she was screaming all through her attack until it was over and her throat burned for rest, as did the rest of her body as not long after she collapsed onto her knees.

Her stomach was churning harder now, her eyes blurred with tears and black spots that begged her to unconsciousness. Something leaked out of her mouth that was not blood, but something just as vile tasting, and she spat it out without looking.

She didn't know when Thor got to her side, but she heard his voice by her ear.

"My friend you must stop and fall back, leave this to me,"

"I have to… I can fight. Just one more. I can be an Avenger," Her words wouldn't have made much sense to Thor, and Tesla could barely hear them herself as they were slurred together with the acrid taste in her mouth.

"You have done well, your father will be proud. Now live to feel his pride," Tesla looked at Thor as he spoke before finally nodding her head, standing back on her pained feet and hobbling back towards the group at the research station.

Her fighting was over, and there was little more that she could do without losing all of her strength together and wasting away. There was concern on the faces of the group but she ignored them to see what Thor's plan was, begging herself to stay awake to at least see if this would be solved.

Thor was approaching the Destroyer slowly, saying something that her ears were ringing too loud to make out. For a moment however it seemed that whatever Thor had said had worked, as the Destroyer turned perhaps to walk back from where it had come.

Except instead it twisted round and hit Thor so hard, he went flying back.

Shouts of surprise and worry rushed through everyone and Jane ran forward to assist him, but even from where she was standing Tesla could tell that it was far too late. The injuries Thor had sustained from the attack quickly took his life. The Destroyer now truly walked back down the road, apparently finished in its quest as Jane held the Asgardian's face and cried.

Tesla felt a swell of selfish loneliness in her gut along with the sick and hated herself for it. She was alone in her oddity again, but that did not matter as much as Thor seemingly losing his life. Tears sung in her eyes again, this time for the strange man that she had only just met today.

It was just as everything seemed lost, that Tesla felt the ground beneath her rumble.

Selvig seemed to know already what was happening and grabbed Jane to pull her back from Thor's prone body. Looking out into the distance would show exactly what was happening, as something for the temporary SHIELD base was soaring up in the air and heading their way. It took less than a few seconds for it to make impact exactly where Thor had been laying.

What happened next was best explained as a real Sailor Moon experience.

Thor's civilian clothes were replaced with armor much like the Asgardian's, and a long flowing red cape that spoke of his true regal state as the son of Odin. The object that had brought him back from death's door and was now held tightly in his hand, was the 084 that had brought Tesla to the desert in the first place.

Mjolnir.

"Oh. My. God," Jane's reaction was much like most of the humans that were standing behind the apparent God of Thunder. A fact that Thor then proved as he swung the mighty hammer by his side, and just above where he stood thunder clouds and a twister started to form. He was raised into the air, and not long afterwards the Destroyer followed with him into the twister.

What happened next was hard to see because it just happened to take place in a twister. But by the end of it, pieces of the Destroyer were raining from the sky and Thor walked forward as his true self, victorious.

Relief flooded everyone's veins faster than adrenaline, and Tesla allowed herself to lean back again the wall of the old radio station, the feelings of sickness and exhaustion still being there, but were in the back of her mind. Instead there was just happiness at the once again selfish thought that the person that made her feel not so alone, was still here.

As everyone was expressing their joy in that Thor was still alive, a few SHIELD cars started to pull up to the situation, and already Tesla could feel how much trouble she was in with Coulson and Sitwell. As the two agents exited the car however, they were more concerned with questioning the aliens of a different realm that just managed to save the town.

"Donald?" I don't think you've been completely honest with me," Coulson approached the God of Thunder as he would someone on the street for directions. Agent Sitwell and Barton spared a look towards the four other Asgardians but decided on saying nothing.

Thor stepped forward with a calm friendliness that was perhaps not expected.

"Know this, son of Coul. You and I, we fight for the same cause: the protection of this world. From this day forward, you can count me in as your ally, if… you return the items you have taken from Jane,"

"Stolen," Jane countered with irritation towards the SHIELD operative.

"Borrowed. Of course you can have your equipment back. You're going to need it to continue your research," Coulson defused that situation with all the tact and smoothness that one would expect from him. However Thor was still not finished with what he wanted to say to the man, as he continued.

"Also, do not be too harsh with your daughter, she only wished to seek me out to speak with someone who could understand her place in life as a secluded person from the rest of the world. Please tell her when she wakes that I bid her good luck in her ventures, and that she fought well," Coulson looked somewhat confused by what Thor had said, at least until he pointed at the familiar teenager that was now resting against the building nearby, completely asleep.

It was as soon as the Agent had turned around that Thor and Jane had gone up into the sky, the words of Coulson needing to debrief them both falling on deaf ears. The Asgardian warriors followed Thor's trajectory not a second later, and were off running down Main Street before they too could be debriefed.

Agent Barton was the first to approach the exhausted teenager, the tone in his voice being a mixture of relief and yet hinted with worry.

"Tesla, Tessa are you alright?" Barton spoke carefully and tried not to express his fear to where the civilians nearby could see it. However Miss Darcy wasn't a fool and saw through it to see that Tesla's exhaustion was unexpected and possibly a bad thing.

"Is everything ok? Is something wrong?" She stepped forward towards where Tesla was, but Selvig held carefully onto her forearm as Coulson and Sitwell stepped in between them and where the teenager was sitting.

"Nothing is wrong, Agent Tesla just needs a lift home. You might want to go after your friend Miss Foster, I believe she might require your assistance. Tesla will tell us to contact you when she wakes up I'm sure," Agent Sitwell's clear order was not hard to miss and it was probably at that moment that Selvig remembered how dangerous SHIELD could be, and carefully lead Darcy to their car to follow after their friends.

As soon as they were gone Coulson was giving orders to every agent around him.

"Contact Fury, tell him about our situation, contact the health specialists and Professor Cho. We're going to have to air lift her back to HQ so get onto the pilots. Agent Cale and Barton, help me get Tesla into the car," It was a flurry of words and then actions as people scurried off to do their jobs, in the meantime the young agents S.O sat by her side and spoke in soft tones.

"What's happening?" Tesla was sure she had only been asleep for a few seconds and already everyone was gone. Her voice was exhausted and had a slight slurring to it as she turned to face her S.O, and found herself unable to sit up.

"Everything's fine, you just need to see a medical before we get you back to HQ,"

"I'm sorry I ran off, I had to see him," Tesla swallowed back the vile liquid that once again tried to exit through her mouth. She wasn't sure what was happening, but it didn't take much for her to suppose that the medical expert they were going to take her for, was for more than just exhaustion.

"We'll talk about that later okay? Now stay awake for me," Coulson wet a towel that an agent had given him, and pressed it against the teenager's forehead. Barton was carefully unzipping the hoodie that was no doubt not helping with the teenager's overall temperature, considering that they were standing in the middle of a desert town.

Later on, through an incredible trick with a blanket and shifting her body around, Agents Cale, Coulson and Barton had managed to get her in the back of one of the cars. As soon as everyone was secure they were speeding out of the town and off towards their next destination.

"But what about-" Tesla tried to ask after the strange friends that she had managed to make in the past twenty four hours, but she was cut off with another wet towel and soft hushes. The teenager supposed then that whatever happened they would tell her about it later.

It was about this time that Tesla felt herself going in and out of consciousness. The conversation between her S.O and Barton was only coming through in bits and pieces that made no sense without whole understanding.

"She is going to be fine Barton, Cho will sort her out…"

"…can you stay so calm? This is…"

"Could have… She's going to…"

"…not our fault, we…"

"Gauntlets…"

"…if Stark can still be alive, there's hope,"

* * *

Tesla woke in a hospital bed with tubes down her throat, and a sense that perhaps something had gone wrong before. She was then greeted with the kind of words someone wouldn't want to hear when waking up.

"Congratulations Agent, you just beat death,"

* * *

 **Please review, constructive criticism always welcome.**


End file.
